Match Preview: Brentford v Chelsea

Gtech Community Stadium plays host to a west London derby on Saturday as Brentford welcome Chelsea to TW8 (3pm kick-off).

The Bees have won on each of their previous three visits to Stamford Bridge (2-0, 2-0 and 4-1), while the two sides played out a 0-0 stalemate in this fixture last season.

Thomas Frank’s side lost 4-2 to West Ham United on Monday, while Chelsea’s most recent league game was a 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

Pre-match Analysis

Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Brentford likely to have set-piece opportunities on Saturday

Chelsea visit Gtech Community Stadium to face Brentford this Saturday looking to cast off the disappointment of last weekend's Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool.

An entertaining game saw both teams create opportunities, but Mauricio Pochettino's side were cruelly consigned to a 1-0 extra-time defeat by Virgil van Dijk's 118th-minute header.

The Londoners attracted criticism for their conservative approach in the additional 30-minute period, with Pochettino’s post-match comment that "the team felt maybe penalties would be good for us" particularly coming under the spotlight.

Sky Sports punditry duo Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have since ignited a debate regarding Chelsea's lack of killer instinct in the extra period of the cup final, but the stats suggest the Blues would have stood a good chance of prevailing in a shoot-out if the game had indeed gone to penalties.

Cole Palmer started and finished Sunday's showpiece for Chelsea and, having scored all five of his spot-kicks this season, the young England international is the Premier League's most prolific penalty specialist this season.

The Blues also had Enzo Fernández and Noni Madueke on the pitch when the final whistle blew at Wembley, and the pair have both netted from 12 yards this season in the Premier League. Meanwhile, without Mohamed Salah, Liverpool had no one in their squad (let alone on the pitch) with experience of scoring from the spot for the Reds in a league or cup game.

Given Chelsea’s penchant for penalties, Brentford will need to be disciplined in their own box against Pochettino's side this Saturday.

No team has won more top-flight penalties (8) than Chelsea this term (Fernández's miss at West Ham in August the only blot on the Blues' copybook) and Raheem Sterling has been awarded more spot-kicks (3) than any other player.

The Bees have excelled in this regard, though, so far this season, with only Aston Villa (0) conceding fewer penalties in the top flight than Thomas Frank's side in 2023/24.

Callum Wilson's penalty in a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle marks the only time Brentford have shipped a spot-kick during the current campaign and Bees fans may remember that goalkeeper Mark Flekken was rather hard done by that September day for an aborted challenge on Anthony Gordon at St James' Park.

In addition to shrugging off their Carabao Cup hangover, Chelsea will no doubt be intent on ending a four-match winless run against the Bees, which stretches back to 2022.

Brentford have won on each of their previous three visits to Stamford Bridge (2-0, 2-0 and 4-1), while the two sides played out a 0-0 stalemate when the Blues last visited the Gtech - remarkably, only six of Chelsea's 20-man squad that day are still at the club.

One potential vulnerability Brentford may highlight ahead of Saturday's clash concerns Chelsea's disciplinary record. The Blues have received more yellow cards (82, including double yellows) and rank in the division's top five for free-kicks conceded this season in the Premier League.

Conor Gallagher (54) and Moisés Caicedo (39) rank first and third in the top flight for fouls conceded - and it is therefore likely Brentford will have set-piece opportunities to exploit this weekend against their west London rivals.

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Chelsea in danger of second successive season outside Premier League’s top 10

For so many years, Chelsea were such a force in the Premier League. Even before Roman Abramovich’s multi-million-pound takeover in 2003, they were seldom more than a handful of points behind the eventual title winners.

In fact, from 1996/97 to 2021/22, they only finished outside the top six on one occasion.

Now, they are staring a second successive season outside the top 10 in the face for the first time in 28 years.

Such a predicament would have been unthinkable just a few years prior - and even as recently as the summer, when a £400 million transfer spend saw the total spend under Todd Boehly’s ownership surpass the £1 billion mark.

When Brentford travelled to Stamford Bridge at the end of October, it looked as though things were starting to look a bit more promising for the Blues after their pretty miserable start of one win in the first six. They had beaten Fulham in the west London derby, given Burnley a hiding at Turf Moor, then drawn 2-2 with Arsenal after throwing a 2-0 lead away late on.

They dominated proceedings against the Bees, too, but just could not find a way to cancel out Ethan Pinnock’s opener and, when Bryan Mbeumo struck in the 96th minute, hope was obliterated. “We need to blame ourselves because we were not nasty or clinical,” head coach Mauricio Pochettino conceded.

Chelsea responded with a 4-1 win at Tottenham, thanks to Nicolas Jackson’s late hat-trick, and then drew 4-4 with Manchester City in a thriller for the ages but, after the November international break up until Christmas, they just entered a huge slump, results-wise, losing four of their six games, which included a 4-1 thumping at Newcastle and a 2-0 loss at struggling Everton.

It was noted by Pochettino, who said, speaking after the defeat to Wolves on Christmas Eve: “This competition wounds you when you are not clinical enough.”

Ahead of Saturday’s game, they have won four of their last seven in the Premier League, which seems to have silenced anyone who was rubbing their hands together at the thought of the club entering the relegation battle. There’s one positive, at least.

Overall this season, they just have not realised their potential. There has been a pretty sizeable underperformance in terms of expected goals (49.94 xG v 42 actual) and, crucially, expected points (40.84 xPTS v 35 actual). In the rankings of the latter statistic, they sit seventh.

Last Sunday, they lost the Carabao Cup final against a youthful Liverpool side, leaving the FA Cup as their sole chance of silverware this season.

“In extra time, it’s been Klopp’s kids against the blue, billion-pound bottlejobs,” said Sky Sports’ Gary Neville after Virgil van Dijk’s winner at Wembley. It was a scathing statement and one Pochettino argued was “not fair”.

The fact of the matter is that Chelsea’s wild spending in the transfer market has brought expectation from both fans and neutrals alike. Earlier in the season, Pochettino called for patience - the patience of some is now wearing thin.

In the Dugout

Mauricio Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino made his senior debut for Newell’s Old Boys in his native Argentina aged 17 in 1989 and spent five years at the club - playing under future Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa - before moving across the Atlantic to Espanyol in 1994.

In Catalonia, he became a legend. The centre-back played more than 250 games across seven seasons for the Periquitos and won the Copa del Rey twice, but financial issues at the club around the turn of the millennium, shortly after Pochettino had agreed a pre-contract agreement at the club, meant they were unable to fund it, so he joined PSG in 2001, where he acted as a mentor to a young Mikel Arteta.

After two and a half years, he joined Bordeaux, but things did not go to plan and, after 16 appearances, he returned to Espanyol - initially on loan, then permanently - where he closed out his career in 2006 at the age of 34.

He later studied a sports management master’s degree and completed his coaching badges but, shortly after completing his UEFA Pro Licence, he returned to Espanyol for a third time when he was appointed as Ernesto Valverde’s successor. He had spent just shy of four years at the club when his contract was terminated by mutual consent in November 2012.

Pochettino made his name in England managing Southampton from January 2013 to May 2014 and, after the completion of the 2013/14 Premier League campaign, was appointed by Tottenham.

As had been the case at Espanyol in his playing career, he became a legend in north London, not least for helping to develop superstar striker Harry Kane, but also taking Spurs to their first Champions League final in 2019.

A disappointing start to the 2019/20 season led to his sacking after five and a half years and, after a year out of the game, he returned to another former club, PSG.

He lifted Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the Trophee des Champions during his second spell at the Parc des Princes.

The 51-year-old left the French giants in July 2022, only a year after signing a new two-year contract, and, after another year out of the game, he joined Chelsea in May.

The Gameplan

With Joe Shread, football journalist at Sky Sports

Joe Shread, football journalist at Sky Sports, explains how Mauricio Pochettino is likely to set up his side at the Gtech:

“Pochettino has stuck pretty rigidly to a 4-2-3-1 formation this season.

“Malo Gusto and Ben Chilwell have the freedom to attack from full-back and combine with Palmer and Raheem Sterling on the wings.

“Conor Gallagher has impressed as the no.10 and Nicolas Jackson is growing into his role as the no.9.

“Moisés Caicedo and Enzo Fernández have failed to convince either individually or as a pair at the base of midfield. This could be an area to attack for Brentford - as could set-pieces, where Chelsea's defensive record is fairly average.”

Read the full interview with Joe Shread

Match Officials

Gillett the man in the middle at Gtech Community Stadium

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistants: Darren Cann and Akil Howson

Fourth official: Oliver Langford

Video assistant referee: Michael Salisbury

Additional video assistant referee: Natalie Aspinall

Born on the Gold Coast, Australia, highly rated A-League referee Jarred Gillett emigrated to England in 2019 to study at Liverpool John Moore’s University, specialising in research on children with Cerebral Palsy.

He went on to make his EFL officiating debut in April of that same year.

Gillett made history in September 2021 when he became the first overseas official to referee a Premier League match when he took charge of Watford v Newcastle United.

Gillett’s last Brentford assignment was the Bees’ 3-1 defeat to Manchester City earlier this month.

Last Meeting

Chelsea 0 Brentford 2 (Premier League, 28 October 2023)

Brentford became the first-ever team to win on their first three visits to Stamford Bridge in the Premier League with a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in October.

The home side dominated the ball, but the Bees made their moments count as second-half goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbeumo secured three more points in SW6.

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