Chelsea’s old habits resurface as Brentford loss snaps mini-resurgence
The weekend couldn’t have gone any worse for Chelsea fans, who had to watch their club put up a lacklustre performance en route suffering a 2-0 home defeat to Brentford in the Premier League.
After last Sunday’s encouraging output against Arsenal in the 2-2 draw, Mauricio Pochettino’s side couldn’t maintain the same lofty heights and were deservedly punished by Brentford.
A contributory factor to Chelsea’s defeat was the unavailability of some key players. That includes Mykhailo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez, who missed out due to what Pochettino described as “small muscle injuries.”
Nevertheless, Chelsea still had a superior team, but it didn’t show on the pitch, as the Bees ran out winners following second-half goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbeumo.
Old habits cost Blues
Chelsea’s last four games before Saturday were very encouraging. Not only did they shut out their opponents and concede less, but they also scored more. They kept two clean sheets in that period and also impressively scored nine goals. However, against Brentford, the Blues were undone by old habits.
They failed to show the kind of desire they’ve displayed in recent weeks and were also not clinical enough with the few decent chances that came their way. Their defending was also atrocious at times.
For Pinnock’s opening goal, Mbuemo had it way too easy running in behind the Chelsea defence to cross the ball into the box.
Meanwhile, Robert Sanchez’s rather bizarre decision to join the attack for a corner when no player was covering for him allowed Mbuemo to make it 2-0 following a fast breakaway.
These are the sort of habits that cost Chelsea last season and also impacted their slow start to the season. The same mistakes led to their defeat against Brentford.
Chelsea’s mini-resurgence halted
It was beginning to look like Chelsea had turned a corner following last week’s spirited performance against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues fought gallantly against the Gunners and nearly beat Mikel Arteta’s side, but for a late capitulation which ensured that the spoils were shared. The draw also extended Chelsea’s unbeaten run to four games.
However, that mini-resurgence hit a snag against Brentford. The Blues were expected to build on their recent fine performances but, rather, they returned against the Bees.
"We need to be more nasty in the last third. We need to be more clinical. It's a very young group who need to improve in this area more than any other,” Pochettino said after the defeat, as quoted by Goal.
"I think the analysis of the defeat is clear because after the first half we should score and we didn't score. It is easy when you dominate and create chances and you don't concede chances and the opponent doesn't cross the halfway line."
He added:
“I think you should score. If you don't score, you need to blame yourself, and we are going to blame ourselves because we were not nasty or clinical in front of the goal. We created chances but did not score.”
Chelsea failed the consistency test against Brentford and have to pick themselves back up again.
It doesn’t help that Pochettino isn’t able to select his strongest lineup due to injuries. Nevertheless, there’s no excuse for losses against modest teams like Brentford, as the Blues seek a UEFA Champions League return.