Chelsea come back off the rails in Brentford defeat

Brentford’s French-born Cameroonian striker #19 Bryan Mbeumo (C) celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Brentford at Stamford Bridge in London on October 28, 2023. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) /

Chelsea suffered another damaging home defeat as goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbuemo gave Brentford the bragging rights with a 2-0 win in the west London derby on Saturday.

The big-spending Blues 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 difficult start to Pochettino’s reign, back-to-back victories over Fulham and Burnley was followed by an impressive performance, even though they blowing a two-goal lead, in a 2-2 draw against Arsenal last weekend.

However, Brentford leapfrogged Chelsea into 10th in the Premier League table, pushing Pochettino’s men fall into the bottom half.

Chelsea started brightly, penning the Bees back, but it was a familiar tale for Pochettino as his side lacked the clinical touch to make good approach play count.

The Argentine said on Friday that Christopher Nkunku is nearing a comeback from the knee injury that has prevented the £52 million signing making a competitive appearance yet for his new club.

On this evidence, the French international’s return cannot come soon enough as Chelsea’s other new striker Nicolas Jackson again failed to fire.

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