Brentford secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over a lacklustre Chelsea side. Xabi Alonso’s side have now gone three league matches without a win. For the Bees, international Schade played a part in two of the goals.
Before the in-form Brentford duo of Janelt (two goals this season) and Schade (three) head off to join their national teams, their final league match before the extended international break was on the cards against Chelsea. At the other end, Liverpool’s former captain Henderson was in the spotlight, having played for the hosts just last season.
Schade was right in the thick of things in the very first attacking move, but came off second best against Fofana in the box. The first dangerous shot on goal came from the other end: Welbeck, one of seven new signings in Xabi Alonso’s starting line-up, set up Pedro Neto, who tested Kelleher for the first time (10th minute).
A period of extremely scrappy play followed, during which Chelsea had more of the ball but, like the Bees, came no closer to scoring the opening goal. There was nothing else of note to report before half-time, so things could only get better in the second half.
A hat-trick of debut goals
This was largely down to the home side, who showed a different side to their game from then on. Anthony’s header hit the top of the crossbar – though he had been offside beforehand. A few minutes later, the new signing was finally able to celebrate for Brentford for the first time, after he pushed Schuster’s headed pass over the line (61).
Speaking of firsts: There was one for striker Igor Thiago too. He had been waiting until the 83rd minute for his long-awaited first goal of the season, but then the moment finally arrived: after Schade’s shot had been parried by Martinez, the Brazilian international had an easy task with the rebound and celebrated exuberantly afterwards.
Shortly before full-time, Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli came on as a substitute, becoming the first Premier League player born in the 2010s to feature in a match – the midfielder thus became the youngest Chelsea player ever to feature, at the age of 16 years and 225 days.
However, the final word in this match went to Brentford’s Fabio Carvalho deep into stoppage time, who had come on as a substitute for the first time this season just moments earlier: following a sharp cross from Schade, which was slightly deflected, the substitute slotted home confidently to make it 3–0 (90+4).
Whilst Brentford remain unbeaten, Chelsea suffered yet another painful setback. The Blues have been waiting for a win in the Premier League since Matchday 2. Xabi Alonso’s side will not have another chance to do so until 10 October (4.00 pm), when they face Bournemouth following the extended international break. The Bees, meanwhile, will be in action at the same time away at Aston Villa.