Blues humiliated by Bees 4-1 at home after going 1-0 up

By Paul Lagan at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea 1 v Brentford 4

Chelsea were humiliated at Stamford Bridge by their west London Rivals Brentford this afternoon, going down 4-1 after taking the lead through a sensational goal by Toni Rudiger.

The Bees haven’t beaten Chelsea since February 1939 but the thousands of Bees fans jumping up and down in the Shed won’t care about that – this win puts them within striking distance of safety in the Premier League.

The Blues don’t like an international break. 

This time last year, following players returning from around the world playing for their countries, Chelsea were humbled, at home, 5-2 to WBA.  

They went on to beat Porto in the Champions League 2-0 a few days later which will give them some hope they will be able to repeat that score as they face Real Madrid on Wednesday. 

But any watching Madrid scout will be either perplexed but the Chelsea performance or delighted.

The Bees fans taunted their rivals with ‘we want five’ and had the referee added an extra couple of minutes to the four he did give, it could easily have been five.

Christian Eriksen had the first chance of the game, a curling right-footed free-kick after three minutes, but it failed to trouble Mendy.

But in the counter-attack, the Bees were proving to be cutting.

Twice the Blues survived quick breakaways, the second time, on eight minutes, Mendy had to make a fine diving save to his left to thwart Ivan Toney’s goal-bound effort.

Chelsea’s first attack in anger came on 22 minutes – Mason Mount tried a right-footer from the edge of the penalty area, but it sailed over David Raya’s crossbar.

This was followed 10 minutes, later by Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who got his left-footer on target, but straight into the midriff of Raya.

The hime side started to combine better together further up the field. This pushed The Bees back and on 38 minutes, Hakim Ziyech had a fine, curler on the right. The ball was tipped over the bar by Raya.

There were  no changes by either side at half-time.

The Blues started the half with greater intensity and were rewarded with a Toni Rudiger special on 48 minutes..

He doesn’t score many, but he does love to shoot from range.

This time 35 yards out, he left fly with a sensational bullet of a drive.

The ball smashed off Raya’s right post and into the back of the net.

But within two minutes the scores were level.

Not for the first time, the Chelsea back four looked porous and it was left to Vitaly Janelt who thumped home past Mendy from just inside the Blues penalty area.

But within four minutes, the Bees went head.

Another quick break saw Bryan Mbeumo and Eriksen race into the Blues half – only N’Golo Kante was at the back.

Mbeumo took the ball into the Chelsea area on the left, before cutting the ball across goal to Eriksen who clipped the ball over Mendy and into the net.

It got worse for Chelsea when the visitors extended their lead when Brentford cut the Chelsea rearguard apart and Janelt clipped the ball over Mendy.

VAR had a quick look and the Gil was given, as Janelt’s run was perfect.

Shell-shocked Thomas Tuchel elected to take off Timo Werner and Kante, replacing them with Mateo  Kovacic and Romelu Lukaku.

Havertz thought he had got a goal  back, but referee Andrew Madley adjusted the German had controlled the ball with his arm before smashing the ball home.

He then clipped the ball wide as the home side tried to get back into the match.

It got worse for the Blues as the defence melted away allowing substitute Yoane Wissa to slam home to make it four with three minutes left on the clock.

Teams: Mendy, Azpilicueta Rudiger, Silva, Alonso, Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Mount, Ziyech, Havertz, Werner

Subs: Kepa, James, Christensen, Sarr, Jorginho, Kovacic, Saul, Barkley, Lukaku

Brentford: Raya, Ajer, Jansson, Pinnock, Henry, Norgaard, Janelt, Eriksen, Roerslev, Mbeumo, Toney

Subs: Fernandez, Canos, Jensen, Wissa, Ghoddos, Zantac, Fosu, Baptiste, Sorensen