Chelsea 1 Brentford 4: Blues HUMILIATED as Eriksen scores first goal in amazing comeback after Rudiger screamer

CHAMPIONS of Europe? You’re having a laugh.

And it was hard to argue with the damning verdict of delirious Brentford supporters who had just witnessed clueless Chelsea being absolutely filleted on their own patch.

It was by far the Blues’ worst performance since the 5-2 home defeat by West Brom exactly a year ago on Sunday.

And this time Thomas Tuchel and his players cannot use all the uncertainty around the club’s ownership for this damning result.

To make matters a whole lot worse, they now have just three days to get themselves back into any kind of shape for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash with Real Madrid.

And former Bridge boss Carlo Ancelotti will be licking his lips at the prospect of Wednesday’s match if this is the best that a Chelsea team close to full strength can manage.

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Because they weren’t just beaten by the noisy west London neighbours from just down the road, they were absolutely battered.

Two goals from Vitaly Janelt and a couple more from Christian Eriksen and Yoanne Wissa all but guarantees that Thomas Frank’s team can now start planning for another year in then top flight.

With five goals in his previous three games, Ivan Toney should hve been the man Brentford were relying on if they were going to get anything from this game.

And it is no exaggeration to say that he could easily have helped himself to another hat-trick inside the opening 11 minutes against Chelsea’s shambolic defence.

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His opening chance came after Marcos Alonso’s loose back pass was met with an even worse clearance by Edouard Mendy.

But with the Chelsea keeper stranded in no-man’s land, Toney’s chip dropped the wrong side of the bar when he really should have done better.

Another opportunity quickly arrived after Chelsea struggled to deal with Christian Eriksen’s crossfield pass which culminated in Toney’s low shot drawing a sprawling low save from Mendy.

And when Tuchel’s ponderous back four were caught out again by Rico Henry’s deep cross, Toney was again unable to take advantage when he headed over from close range.

Chelsea were really struggling to deal with the visitors’ up-and-at-em approach and when Mendy went down clutching his left knee it looked as though things were about to get even more serious for Tuchel.

Fortunately for the European Champions, he was able to continue after treatment as his team finally started to get to grips with their opponents.

Mason Mount started the fightback with a 22nd minute effort which flew narrowly wide before Ruben Loftus-Cheek was allowed to barge through a crowd of defenders for a shot which didn’t really trouble Bees keeper David Raya.

Mount’s attempted cut-back was intercepted by Eriksen, much to Tuchel’s annoyance, before Antonio Rudiger’s wayward long-range effort drew derisive cheers from the visiting fans behind the Shed End goal.

But it wasn’t until the 39th minute that Raya was seriously tested when he was forced to pull off a fingertip save to keep out a fierce rising shot from Hakim Ziyech.

Maybe it was the fact that Chelsea have played 13 more games than Brentford this season which was at the heart of their struggles to break down a team whose last win at Stamford Bridge was all the way back in 1939.

For this was Chelsea’s 50th match of an already gruelling campaign and with at least 12 more games still to play, things are not going to get any easier between now and the end of the season.

They thought they had finally broken Brentford’s stubborn resistance in spectacular style three minutes after the interval when Rudiger beat Raya with a stunning shot from almost 40 yards out.

And no-one was laughing at the big German’s finishing after that one.

Yet that was to be as good as it got for a team who are now miles away from League leaders Manchester City and Liverpool and suddenly in danger of surrendering third place in the table.

And even after Bryan Mbeumo squandered the chance of an immediate Brentford equaliser, Chelsea still failed to heed the alarm bells and were pegged back by Janelt’s 50th minute leveller.

Worse was quickly to follow for the disbelieving Tuchel as three Chelsea defenders were sucked in by Mbeumo’s 54th minute counter attack, leaving Eriksen totally free to smash the busy Bees into an unlikely lead.

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And any thoughts of a late fightback by the beaten Blues were ended when Janelt struck again on the hour, beating Mendy with an audacious chip into the top corner after being played in by Toney.

The German wing-back, who only cost Brentford £600,000 when they signed him from Bochum two years ago, had just doubled his season’s goal tally in the space of ten minutes.

And with three minutes remaining, sub Wissa was able to cash in on a dreadful mix-up between Rudiger and Thiago Silva to secure his team’s biggest win of the season.

it means Brentford are now a massive 11 points clear of the relegation zone and surely assured of their Premier League survival

For Chelsea the future is not so clear and quite how they pick themselves up in time for Wednesday evening is going to be probably the biggest test of Tuchel’s time at the Bridge.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk