Sports
Brentford Beats Chelsea As The Blues Suffers Another EPL Defeat
Chelsea has been beaten again in the English Premier League.
The Blues suffered another damaging home defeat as goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbuemo gave Brentford a 2-0 win in the West London derby on Saturday.
TrackNews Media understands that Chelsea have won just one of their last 13 home Premier League games over the past two seasons, and this latest setback punctures belief that Mauricio Pochettino was beginning to get Chelsea back on track.
After a challenging beginning to Pochettino’s tenure, consecutive triumphs over Fulham and Burnley were followed by an impressive display, despite surrendering a two-goal advantage, in a 2-2 draw against Arsenal last weekend.
Nevertheless, Brentford surpassed Chelsea to claim 10th place in the Premier League standings, causing Pochettino’s squad to descend into the lower half.
The Blues had started today’s match with vigour, pressuring the Bees, but it was a familiar narrative for Pochettino as his team lacked the decisive touch to capitalize on their promising build-up play.
The Argentine had stated on Friday that Christopher Nkunku is nearing a return from a knee injury that has thus far prevented the £52 million signing from making a competitive appearance for his new club.
Based on this evidence, the French international’s comeback cannot arrive soon enough, as Chelsea’s other new striker, Nicolas Jackson, once again failed to deliver. Noni Madueke was unfortunate when his blistering strike from a narrow angle came back off the crossbar after just 10 minutes.
Marc Cucurella should have done much better with a tame effort straight at Mark Flekken after being picked out by the impressive Cole Palmer.
The former winger of Manchester City, along with Raheem Sterling, has emerged as the standout performer as Chelsea’s attack has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks. However, Sterling was also at fault for his wastefulness when he missed the target by a significant margin from a close range.
Brentford posed little threat before halftime, but they issued a warning at the beginning of the second half when Yoane Wissa’s shot struck Robert Sanchez’s chest.
Chelsea failed to learn from this warning, and the defensive mistakes leading to the goal will undoubtedly frustrate Pochettino as much as the wastefulness of his forwards. Mbuemo delivered a cross to the back post, and Pinnock capitalized on Madueke’s lack of attention to score a powerful header at Sanchez’s near post.
Despite Chelsea’s dominance in possession, it was Brentford who appeared more likely to extend their lead. Sanchez swiftly rushed off his line to deny substitute Yehor Yarmolyuk his first goal for Brentford, and Mbuemo narrowly missed the target with his shot.
Earlier this month, Brentford came close to securing a memorable victory at Old Trafford, only for Manchester United to score twice in stoppage time.
However, this time it was Thomas Frank’s team who secured all three points in the final moments of the match. Sanchez’s decision to join the attack in search of an equalizer from a corner backfired, as Brentford swiftly counterattacked and Neal Maupay set up Mbuemo for an easy finish into an empty net.
This victory makes Brentford the first team ever to win their first three away games in the Premier League against Chelsea.