Brentford 0-1 Chelsea - A throwback performance to Jose Mourinho's "Shirts-off" moment at Blackburn all those years ago!

It was always going to be a difficult game facing Brentford on Saturday night based on their start to the Premier League season. Added to that the players unavailable for the game for Chelsea, and the fact that two of our three first-choice defenders were out, to get three-points in this one would be a massive result. 

I stated in my live commentary build-up on my YouTube channel that it was a dangerous, dangerous game. As the final whistle blew, Chelsea fans knew just how important that result and defensive performance could be in our challenge for the Premiership title this season.

There have been instant comparisons to the famous Jose Mourinho instruction to the Chelsea players after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Blackburn, to remove their shirts and throw them into the Chelsea fans who had travelled up north that night. Such a sense of being an important moment in that season, if felt the same walking off the pitch at the Brentford Community stadium.

Chelsea bossed and dominated the game for three quarters and took a well-earned lead into the half-time break with a late goal struck home to make it three-from-three for Ben Chilwell. 

Chelsea had pushed their two wingbacks forward to join our attacks alongside Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, and it created all sorts of problems for the home side. Brentford simply struggled to deal with our attacking shape being supplemented by strong performances from everyone wearing blue. 

However, but for our domination performance, we lacked the final ball, the killer pass and a clear-cut opportunity to extend our lead. By doing so, Brentford felt that they were well in the game and decided to go for broke in the final quarter. 

Moving to three up front, they began to force and dominate the game. Brentford a renowned for their use of dead-ball situations are always a threat. On Saturday night it proved to be the case with Edouard Mendy and the Chelsea defensive unit called into action FIVE times to deny them and keep a clean sheet. 

Edouard Mendy takes the headlines and a well-deserved man of the match award, but tribute must be paid to those that stepped up when called upon. Those who hadn’t featured much this season for whatever reason. Malang Sarr, Trevor Chalobah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ben Chilwell and Timo Werner, all who have not featured in every game for the manager, worked their socks off to defend well, to run non-stop to probe and cause them problems. 

Malang Sarr, Andreas Christensen and Trevor Chalobah were all outstanding on the night and for Malang Sarr it was such an impressive Premier League debut. 

Chelsea came into this one knowing we would have to dig in to get a result at times and maybe ride our luck a little. Chelsea’s defensive performance and the absolute heroics and world-class display from Edouard Mendy isn’t luck. 

What a massive three-points!