Chelsea vs Brentford: Bees sting Blues in whirlwind 2nd half

Chelsea vs Brentford: Four goals scored in 15 whirlwind minutes at the start of the second half saw the Blues go 1-0 up, before quickly surrendering in an eventual 4-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

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Antonio Rudiger opened the scoring with an incredible strike from 30 yards out, but Vitaly Janelt scored two in the ensuing 12 minutes, to go with another from Christian Eriksen (his first club goal since returning after suffering a cardiac arrest last summer at EURO 2020), and Yoane Wissa added a fourth for good measure just before full-time.

The victory could see Chelsea (59 points) slip to within two points of 4th-place Arsenal (54 points), who are now hot on their heels in what appears to be an avoidable battle for 3rd. The Gunners will pull level on games played (29) when they visit Crystal Palace on Monday, at which point they can reduce the gap from five to two.

Brentford (33 points), meanwhile, are up to 14th in the Premie League table, now 11 points clear of the relegation zone.

Final score: Chelsea 1, Brentford 4

Goal scorers: Chelsea (Rudiger 48′), Brentford (Janelt 50′, 60′, Eriksen 54′, Wissa 87′)

Shots: Chelsea 21, Brentford 17

Shots on target: Chelsea 8, Brentford 6

Possession: Chelsea 70%, Brentford 30%

1. Chelsea can’t cope with Brentford press: Thomas Tuchel revealed before the game that he selected Ruben Loftus-Cheek instead of Jorginho because he anticipated a rough and tumble battle with the “physical” Bees. That decision proved a disastrous one for much of the first half, as Chelsea were frequently unable to pass out of their own end after Edouard Mendy took a short goal kick. Some of the errors weren’t even forced by actual pressure, but perceived pressure once