JUST when Chelsea thought they had turned the corner, west London neighbours Brentford arrived to inflict even more pain and embarrassment.
Defender Ethan Pinnock scored with a 58th minute header and Bryan Mbeumo rubbed salt into the wound with a second in injury time .
Incredibly, it means Thomas Frank’s side have won all three of their Premier League games at Stamford Bridge.
After 4-1 and 2-0 wins here, Brentford hung on for a win which was hugely frustrating for boss Mauricio Pochettino.
After scoring just one goal in September, Chelsea had struck eight times in their three Premier League games this month but the team’s old problems returned to haunt them.
Namely, that after throwing £1billion at new players under the new owners, they still don’t have a proper strikeforce.
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Despite having all of the possession in the first half, they still failed to produce a killer finish with striker Nicolas Jackson looking completely out of his depth.
Just before half-time, boss Pochettino was involved in a spat with a home fan who had told Jackson to “wake up”.
Jackson replied by putting a finger on his lips while Pochettino urged the punter to support the team.
Chelsea were not helped by the fact that Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk were both missing after picking up muscle strains in training on Friday.
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And the one plus for Chelsea was a bright performance from Cole Palmer although even he faded as the game progressed
Noni Madueke is still looking for his first Premier League goal since joining from PSV Eindhoven for £35million and he hammered a left-foot shot against the bar
Conor Gallagher had a shot pushed away by Brentford’s Mark Flekken while Marc Cucurella wasted a brilliant chance when unmarked but he volleyed the ball with his shin straight at the visiting keeper.
Although he did not make much of it, Gallagher had a claim for a penalty after being shoved to the ground by Nathan Collins
Chelsea went in at the break wondering how on earth they were not ahead yet in the second half, they ran out of ideas completely. Quite frankly, they bottled it.
Brentford, having soaked up a lot of pressure, fired one warning when slicing their way through the Chelsea team and Vitaly Janelt fired a shot straight at Sanchez.
Yet Chelsea were not so lucky in Brentford’s next attack when Pinnock, despite being surrounded by three defenders, delivered a late run to score with a header at the far post. Equally, Cucurella was guilty of yet more poor defending for failing to cut out the cross from Mbeumo.
Just before the goal, Brentford sub Neal Maupay, while warming up on the touchline, got booked for kicking the ball away. Unsurprisingly, after the opener, much to the frustration of the home fans, Brentford tried to run the clock down even more.
As Pochettino made more changes, he gave a debut to Brazilian teenager Deivid Washington
And as Chelsea became more frustrated, Pochettino’s assistant Jesus Perez was red carded after leaving his technical area for a spat with the Brentford bench.
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Yet Brentford piled on the misery in the sixth minute of injury time.
Chelsea threw everyone forward for a corner, including keeper Sanchez, yet Brentford broke through Maupay and he squared for Mbeumo to roll the ball into an empty net.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
