Chelsea rocked as Bryan Mbeumo’s late strike seals Brentford victory

If they did not hold the mantle already, Brentford cemented their status as Chelsea’s bogey side with a third straight Premier League win at Stamford Bridge. This past week Mauricio Pochettino acknowledged Chelsea, who were jeered off at full time, remain far away from where he expects them to be and on this evidence there is still a long way to go.

If anything encapsulated Chelsea’s frustrations it was the sight of Jesús Pérez storming into the Brentford dugout to have words with their analyst Bernardo Cueva, a contretemps that triggered the referee, Simon Hooper, taking charge of his first top-flight game since the embarrassing VAR error in Tottenham’s win over Liverpool, to award the Chelsea assistant manager a red card.

Chelsea have spent more than £1bn on furnishing their squad with some of the biggest talents in the game since the Todd Boehly-led takeover last year and so it would have been galling to watch Ethan Pinnock, a defender Brentford signed four years ago for a then club record £3m from Barnsley, open the scoring. Yehor Yarmolyuk missed a golden chance to double Brentford’s advantage after they streamed forward on the counterattack but deep into six minutes of stoppage time Bryan Mbeumo slotted in a second goal, after Chelsea committed everyone forward, including the goalkeeper Robert Sánchez, in search of an equaliser.

The first half felt like an exercise of attack v defence but the longer the score remained goalless the more edgy Chelsea became and the more Brentford’s belief grew. Their game gnawed at the hosts, whose players frequently looked up only to discover traffic in the shape of red-and-white striped shirts before them.

Noni Madueke rattled the crossbar after 10 minutes with a fine left-foot strike but Chelsea passed up a series of reasonable opportunities. Marc Cucurella sidefooted a tame shot straight into the gloves of Mark Flekken after reading Cole Palmer’s clever chipped pass towards the penalty spot and Raheem Sterling skewed a shot wide at the back post after further invention by Palmer. Both chances prompted Pochettino to encourage his players.

Ethan Pinnock heads Brentford into the lead after 58 minutes at Stamford Bridge. Photograph: John Patrick Fletcher/Action Plus/Shutterstock

Brentford had to suffer but in another sense they seemed to enjoy suffocating Chelsea’s attacking players, congesting any territory remotely close to the 18-yard box. Mbeumo was selfless in attack, earning a pat on the back from his manager, Thomas Frank, after buying a throw-in approaching halfway early in the second half. The sight of Brentford’s left centre-back Nathan Collins pressing Palmer almost all the way to the Chelsea goalline was another piece of evidence of Brentford’s determination to make life uncomfortable.

Chelsea were without Enzo Fernández and Mykhailo Mudryk owing to minor muscle injuries sustained this past week and Pochettino made three changes from their draw with Arsenal, promoting Madueke, Nicolas Jackson and Axel Disasi to his starting lineup. Jackson sent an early shot wide of a post and from there his afternoon did not get much better. On the verge of half-time a Chelsea supporter a few rows behind the dugout made his feelings plain to Jackson. An animated Pochettino responded by offering a sharp-tongued riposte.

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Brentford had the first meaningful chance in the second half, Sánchez instinctively repelling an effort by Vitaly Janelt after the marauding Brentford centre-back Kristoffer Ajer picked out the midfielder with a first-time pass from the byline. Eight minutes later Brentford seized the lead when another roaming centre-back, this time Pinnock, eluded the attention of Disasi and Madueke to bury a commanding header into the Chelsea net. Mbeumo sent in a hanging cross from the right and Pinnock displayed the most hunger in the box to power in.

The second goal came when Sánchez was left to race back desperately after a Chelsea corner deep in added time was cleared. The goalkeeper caught Neal Maupay but he laid the ball off for Mbeumo to roll into the vacant net.