Brentford vs Chelsea LIVE: Stream, TV channel, teams, kick-off time – Loftus-Cheek and Sarr start in Premier League

THOMAS’ THOUGHTS

Despite Brentford beating the likes of Arsenal, Wolves and West Ham as well as holding Liverpool to a draw, coming up against the current Champions of Europe in my eyes is their toughest test to date and Thomas Frank seems to agree.

But not only does the Bees coach think it will be a huge test, Frank oddly believes that it will be funny too.

As far as I know, they won the Champions League last year. I also can look at the table and I think they’re number one so they are one of the biggest favourites to win the title this year so it’s going to be a huge task and quite interesting and funny whatever you say.

When we won our promotion in the play-off final, they won the Champions League, I think that’s a very picture of a difference between the two clubs.

Thomas Frank brentfordfc.com

TAYLOR MADE 

With the first elevens and substitutes announced, it’s only fair that I give the man in the middle his own section too.

Today’s referee is none other than Anthony Taylor and to keep it as respectful as possible, Chelsea fans are not happy.

The 42-year-old has been a FIFA-listed referee since 2013 and has been in charge of many fixtures including FA Cup semi-finals and finals.

It’s fair to say that Taylor has made some controversial decisions in his career and one of those decisions came in a fixture between Chelsea and Liverpool where Blues defender Reece James was sent off for blocking a potential goal scoring opportunity with his arm.

Following the game, Chelsea fans launched a petition which was reportedly signed by 80,000 people for the Englishman to never referee a game involving Chelsea again.

Well here we are, almost six weeks later and Taylor is set to dictate another match with Chelsea in the mix; things just got spicy.

TUCHEL IS IN TOWN

The town is only big enough for one Thomas and Thomas Tuchel will want to prove that he is number one.

CHELSEA BENCH

1 Kepa Arrizabalaga, 3 Alonso, 5 Jorginho, 17 Saul, 18 Barkley, 19 Mount, 20 Callum Hudson-Odoi, 24 James, 29 Havertz

That is one strong bench.

CHELSEA XI

Thomas Tuchel has so much talent at his disposal so it is a surprise to see that the German hasn’t made wholesale changes from the side who swept the floor with Southampton before the international break.

However, two players who he probably would have wanted in the first eleven are Antonio Rudiger and Thiago Silva but the pair are absent due to international duty issues so in steps Malang Sarr and Christensen.

The only other change is N’Golo Kante slots into midfield meaning that English youngster Callum Hudson-Odoi drops to the bench.

Everyone else keeps their spot in the starting line-up.

(3-5-2): 16 Mendy, 14 Chalobah, 4 Christensen, 31 Sarr, 28 Azpilicueta; 12 Loftus-Cheek, 7 Kante, 8 Kovacic, 21 Chilwell; 9 Lukaku, 11 Werner

BRENTFORD BENCH

40 Fernandez, 2 Thompson, 4 Goode, 9 Forss, 14 Ghoddos,  20 Ajer, 28 Bidstrup, 30 Roerslev, Maghoma

BRENTFORD XI

The Bees head coach has fielded the exact same starting line-up as the side who earned a hard fought victory against West Ham a couple of weeks ago.

Mathias Zanka, Pontus Jensson and Ethan Pinnock make up the back three.

Thomas Frank has stuck with the midfield five of Sergi Canos, Mathias Jensen, Christian Norgaard, Frank Onyeka and Rico Henry.

Which leaves Bryan Mbeumo and Championship top goal scorer record holder Ivan Toney to cause trouble to the Chelsea defence.

(3-5-2): 1 Raya; 22 Mathias Zanka, 18 Jansson, 5 Pinnock; 7 Canos, 8 Mathias Jensen, 6 Norgaard, 15 Onyeka, 3 Henry; 19 Mbeumo, 17 Toney

IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN FOLKS!

THE TEAM SHEETS ARE IN!

CRUNCH TIME AT THE COMMUNITY 

When they say don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s true.

Brentford Community Stadium only opened for business on the 1st September 2020 and its capacity of 17,250 makes it officially the smallest football stadium in the Premier League.

However, when big boys such as Chelsea step onto their field, I have no doubt that the tightly knitted seating arrangements, are going to give the Community Stadium an atmosphere comparable to a sold out Wembley Arena.

The stadium is so great that Brentford Football Club and Premiership Rugby Club London Irish made an agreement that both of them could use the pitch as their home.

A Premier League football club and a Premiership Rugby Club, it’s Premier all round.

Say what you want about it but you can’t deny that it is a beautiful sight for sore eyes.

CHELSEA TREATMENT TABLE

Thomas Tuchel had some huge injury news boost to discuss in his pre-match press conference on Friday involving Romelu Lukaku.

The £97.5 million man missed out on Beligium’s UEFA Nations League third place play-off defeat to Italy last weekend due to muscle soreness but the Chelsea gaffer has revealed that Lukaku ‘is fine’ and ‘has been involved in both training sessions’ which means that the Chelsea hit-man is likely to be in the starting line-up.

However, Christian Pulisic is still nursing an ankle injury ruling him out of this evening’s clash, Antonio Rudiger’s back issues still seem to be giving him problems which was an injury the German defender sustained on international duty and Hakim Ziyech has been struggling with a headache so he too could miss the trip up the A4 to Brentford.

Thiago Silva would have only landed in the country at some point on Thursday after featuring in a World Cup qualifier 4-1 win for Brazil that same morning so he will also be unavailable.

When asked about the Brazilian veteran, Thomas Tuchel answered in frustration: “We had our talk today about Brentford, we had our tactical training today, he (Thiago Silva) missed all that.

“He played 90 minutes, he has 12 hours of travelling so that gives the answer about his availability; he’s not.”

BRENTFORD INJURY INFORMATION

It’s bitter sweet news for Thomas Frank in regards to the injury list ahead of the big West London derby against the Blues.

The Brentford head coach confirmed in his pre-match press conference that summer signing Kristoffer Ajer has recovered from his hamstring problem and defensive midfielder Vitaly Janelt is back in contention to play following a sustained thigh injury.

However, Frank stated that: “Shandon Baptiste is out because he dislocated his shoulder so unfortunately, he’s not available.”

IVAN’S INSIGHT 

Brentford‘s top goal threat has a long way to go before he smashes certain records in the Premier League.

However Ivan Toney’s ceiling is high so you would be silly to count him out.

Below is some statistics of how the 25-year-old has coped with England’s top division so far.

TONE IT DOWN

One player who Chelsea were reportedly interesting in signing last summer was Brentford hitman Ivan Toney.

Before the Blues agreed a £97.5 million deal with Inter Milan for Romelu Lukaku, it was suggested that Toney was on Chelsea’s radar which the 25-year-old saw as ‘flattering’ and then proceeded to say that he doesn’t “look too deeply into it” once he received the news.

Toney only signed for the Bees from Peterborough in the summer of 2020 and quickly stamped his authority in the same season by breaking the Championship goal scoring record in a single campaign netting 31 goals.

Peterborough director of football, Barry Fry even admitted that Chelsea “have watched him and liked him” so if the 5x Premier League winners weren’t able to get their most expensive signing over the line in Lukaku, the possibility of Toney being a blue wasn’t overlooked.

In the Englishman’s debut Premier League season so far he has, only managed to bag two goals with one of them being a penalty.

But it’s Toney’s overall game plan which can be a handful for defenders and you get the feeling that if Chelsea fail to man-mark him out the game, it could be a tough evening for the boys in blue.

BATMAN

DA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN!

Below is the coolly dispatched penalty taken by Chelsea loanee Michi Batschuayi which completely settled the FA Cup tie back in 2018.

HISTORY

The last league meeting between these two clubs was in 1947, then again Brentford may recall making the trip across town in 2017 but it was an outing that I am sure the fans will want to forget.

They took on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a 4th round FA Cup tie and it was a match which highlighted the gulf in quality because the Blues hit the Bees for four with no reply.

Antonio Conte who was the Chelsea boss at the time had made nine changes from the side who had brushed past Hull City on the previous weekend.

And it didn’t make a difference who the personnel was because Brazilian international Willian opened the scoring with less than 15 minutes on the clock thanks to a beautifully executed free-kick.

Then on the 21st minute, Pedro kept his cool and got in on the scoring act following a perfectly weighted through ball from Michi Batschuayi.

Brentford couldn’t cope with the threat of Chelsea’s front-men and Dean Smith who was manager at the time even described his defenders playing style as “too deep” for most of the game.

And had it not been for the aid of crossbar alongside some poor finishing from Chelsea, the match would have been settled in the first 45.

Conte’s side eventually grabbed a third through an unlikely scorer in Branislav Ivanovic 20 minutes from time.

The romp was then complete when Batschuayi stay composed and dispatched a penalty earned by Ivanovic who had a man of the match performance on the day.

LEAGUE POSITIONING

Going into the weekend, Thomas Tuchel’s were sitting at the pinnacle of the table but Liverpool destroyed Watford earlier on in the day and Manchester City are currently leading against Burnley so Chelsea have been pushed down into third as things stand.

The Bees have slipped into 8^th spots from 7^th due to Aston Villa taking the lead in the West Midlands derby against Wolves, so should it finish like that, Brentford will be playing catch-up in their game against the Blues.

Three points could be huge for both teams today.

MATCH ODDS

Brentford to win – 13/2

Draw – 3/1

Chelsea victory – 1/2

*All odds from Betfair and correct at time of publication.

CHELSEA CURRENT FORM 

Similar to their opponents, Chelsea have only lost one game in the league so far and that was to a very good Manchester City team on the day.

But prior to that, Thomas Tuchel’s men lost their second Champions League group game to a Juventus side who were in the bottom three of Serie A at the time.

However, the Blues went into the international period top of the charts after convincingly beating Southampton so their tails will be up just from that.

BRENTFORD BACKLOG 

The Premier League freshmen are currently exceeding expectations in the eyes of many.

Putting the 1-0 defeat aside to an in-form Brighton side, Brentford are unbeaten in the remainder of their games which includes going toe-to-toe with two of ‘the big six’ in Arsenal and Liverpool.

In addition to that, their Carabao Cup run isn’t going too bad either; ten goals in two rounds is very prolific.

I must admit, seven of those strikes did come against League 2 side Oldham Athletic but you can only beat what is in front of you and that is exactly what Thomas Frank’s men did.

GOOD AFTERNOON

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening depending on what part of the world you are tuning in from.

I hope you’re all feeling nice and that your Saturday has gone well so far but if not don’t worry because…

WARNING! WARNING! DERBY ALERT! DERBY ALRRT!

Yes that’s right its derby day people and it’s a derby which hasn’t taken place in a league match for 74 years so it should be a special one.

Our live blog coverage this evening oversees 2x Champions League winners Chelsea, travel a couple miles down the road to take on Brentford in the West London derby.

Even the managers have the same first name (Thomas) you just couldn’t write it.

I shouldn’t be getting carried away because we are only seven games into the 2021/22 campaign but the Bees are already proving they have what it takes to stay in the division.

Victories against the likes of Arsenal, Wolves and West Ham as well as holding 2020 league champions Liverpool to a 3-3 draw have contributed towards the reason why Brentford are currently sitting comfortably in the top half of the table.

However all it takes is one heavy defeat to throw the Premier League new boys off their stride and today’s opponents are more than capable enough to do that.

Thomas Tuchel’s men were strong contenders to de-throne Manchester City this season before a ball was kicked and with the start they have had, you can see why.

16 points out of a possible 21 is not bad at all.

But the defeat against Pep Guardiola’s side emphasised that Chelsea are not invincible so if Brentford put the blue back-line under pressure, there’s every chance we could be in for an upset this evening.

Stick around for the latest injury news, gossip and starting line-ups all before kick-off which is scheduled for 17:30pm UK time.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss this.