28 October 2023 , 04:00
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After months of misery, Chelsea are finally showing signs of life under Mauricio Pochettino, but he knows any semblance of positivity can be popped in an instant.
Pochettino arrived at Chelsea with a clear understanding that he was taking over a project and it might take time to get a tune out of his mixture of players. Nobody was expecting immediate results from the Argentinean and things have been so bad in recent seasons that sitting 10th in the Premier League almost feels normal for the Blues.
Having stumbled many times before when seemingly on the up and having seen many false dawns, Chelsea fans won’t be getting over excited just yet. After all, they don’t have to have long memories to recall the disasters that the next fixture has brought of late.
Chelsea vs Brentford is a game which never used to hold much meaning for Chelsea supporters. Despite being a local club, there isn’t much of a rivalry, simply due to the scarcity of history: the two clubs went 63 years without even playing each other until they renewed acquaintances in 2013.
And until last year, there hadn’t been much competition involved in the fixtures with Chelsea achieving seven wins and a draw in eight games between World War Two and December 2021. Then the modern era of expensive failure kicked in at Stamford Bridge, coinciding with Brentford’s rise to become one of the best-run clubs and biggest overachievers in the game.
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That combination has triggered embarrassment for Chelsea, memorable victories for Brentford and provides Pochettino with a helpful gauge of how far his side have come under his management. Yes, they are four games unbeaten in all competitions. Yes the line-up is beginning to look more settled. And yes some of the recent signings are beginning to show up more consistently. But can he beat one of Chelsea’s bogey teams?
Brentford beat Chelsea 4-1 at Stamford Bridge in April 2022 (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! Have Chelsea turned the corner under Mauricio Pochettino? Comment below.
Brentford have won their last two Premier League games at Stamford Bridge and will arrive for Saturday’s early kick-off full of confidence after ending their six-game winless run in the league with a convincing 3-0 thrashing of Burnley. They are well drilled and will come with a clear game plan from Thomas Frank. Both Thomas Tuchel and Frank Lampard failed to pass the test.
Tuchel became the first Chelsea manager to lose to Brentford since 1939 when his side suffered a 4-1 thrashing in April 2022. The Blues came into the game on the back of six successive wins in March yet were blown away by three goals in 10 second-half minutes.
Antonio Rudiger put them ahead from long range before the defence fell apart in alarming fashion. Vitaly Janelt scored either side of an emotional goal for Christian Eriksen before Yoane Wissa completed the rout late on. “It was very untypical and killed the game for us,” Tuchel said post-match. "We got punished. They made the most of these 10 minutes, which is maybe also not normal. It's a summary of strange events. It's on us. It's our fault.”
Tuchel was right – it wasn’t normal for Chelsea. Back then, they were third in the Premier League and less than a year on from winning the Champions League. But such collapses were to become the new normal.
Fast-forward a year, with Tuchel and Graham Potter sacked, and it was the returning Lampard’s turn to lose at home to the Bees. This one was much less of a surprise, with Lampard having lost all four of his games leading into the match upon his return as manager.
Bryan Mbeumo gave Brentford a 2-1 win over Chelsea in April (Robin Jones/Getty Images)His status as a club legend didn’t stop his team from getting booed off at half-time following a Cesar Azpilicueta own goal. The introductions of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mykhaylo Mudryk, Joao Felix and Noni Madueke in the second half did not make any difference as Bryan Mbeumo showed them how it was done at the other end. Lampard’s fifth game in charge ended without a goal scored for the fourth time. Defeat left them 20 points off the top four.
Pochettino has already endured some tough times in his short spell as Chelsea manager, but a hat-trick of home defeats against Brentford might just top the lot.