A short trip to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea awaits for Thomas Frank’s Bees on Wednesday.
A seven-game winless run in all competitions has left Chelsea in 11th - closer to the relegation zone than Champions League places with six games to play. For Brentford, Saturday’s draw against Aston Villa ended a three-match losing run.
The opposition
A difficult season for the Blues
Few could have expected the chaos which has accompanied the first year of Todd Boehly’s Chelsea ownership.
Never-before-seen levels of spending in the transfer window showed Boehly’s ambitions, but those ambitions have not been matched by the product on the pitch.
Rather than trophies and free-flowing football, it has brought four managers, unwanted records, and, most likely, a lowest league finish for the Blues in almost 30 years.
Chelsea spent more than a quarter of a billion pounds in the summer transfer window, bringing in the likes of Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but a slow start to the season saw Thomas Tuchel sacked in early September.
Graham Potter was prized away from Brighton and Hove Albion at great expense, but he couldn’t reverse Chelsea’s fortunes on the pitch.
A hat-trick of wins to begin with lifted Chelsea up to fourth in early October, but it’s been a slow slide down the table since. Only four more league wins in 22 have followed, a run which cost Potter his job, again at great expense, earlier this month.
In the middle of that run was another remarkable month of spending. The British-record fee paid for Argentine World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez on Deadline Day took Chelsea’s 2022/23 spending past £500 million and meant the Blues had spent more in January than the rest of the teams in Europe’s top five leagues combined.
However, the bloated nature of Chelsea’s squad was starting to cause issues.
January signings Benoit Badiashile, Andrey Santos, Noni Madueke and David Fofana all had to be left out of the Champions League squad, while Aubameyang was removed to allow Joao Felix to be registered.
There were reports of players having to get changed in corridors as dressing rooms were full, and the Blues struggled to gel on the pitch.
Only West Ham United and Everton have underperformed their non-penalty expected goals by more than Chelsea’s figure of 10.2, and the Blues have only won six times from 16 attempts in the Premier League at home, scoring one or fewer on ten occasions.
Kai Havertz is their leading scorer with seven goals, three clear of Sterling. However, fire-power elsewhere has been sorely lacking; big-money arrivals Aubameyang, Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, and Felix have contributed just three goals from 45 combined Premier League appearances.
One area where Chelsea have been strong this year is defensively. They’ve only conceded 33 goals in 31 games, which is one fewer than league leaders Arsenal, keeping 10 clean sheets.
Club legend Frank Lampard was handed the Chelsea reins at the start of April, following Potter’s sacking, but he hasn’t been able to turn things around.
Chelsea have scored just one goal in their five games under Lampard, losing four of them. They also saw their last hope of a trophy this season disappear last week following a 4-0 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Team news
Norgaard unavailable for Chelsea clash
Brentford head coach Thomas Frank has confirmed that midfielder Christian Norgaard will miss the Bees' clash with Chelsea on Wednesday night with an Achilles problem.
There was some more positive news regarding Kevin Schade, however, who will be in the squad for Wednesday's game, after being taken off in the Bees' 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.
Kristoffer Ajer has returned to full training but won't make the squad for the game against the Blues, along with goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha, who has a minor calf strain.
As for Chelsea, they suffered a double blow in the build-up to the game, with Reece James (hamstring) and Mason Mount (pelvis) both ruled out for the rest of the season by Frank Lampard at his Tuesday press conference.
Kai Havertz (knee) will likely not be involved on Wednesday night either. Armando Broja (knee) and Kalidou Koulibaly (hamstring) are Chelsea’s longer-term absentees.
The manager
Frank Lampard
Lampard is struggling to replicate the success he had as a player, now he’s on the other side of the touchline.
The midfielder, who began his playing career with West Ham United, is Chelsea’s all-time record goalscorer, 147 of which came in the Premier League. He won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and both the Champions League and Europa League with the Blues, while he was named the Premier League Player of the Season in 2004/05.
He earned 106 England caps, scoring 29 goals, before finishing his career in England with Manchester City and then, finally, New York City.
His first managerial position came with Derby County, whom he led to the Play-Off final in his only season with the club, before he returned to Stamford Bridge, replacing Maurizio Sarri in July 2019.
Against the backdrop of a transfer embargo, Lampard guided the Blues to a fourth-placed finish and the FA Cup final, earning a nomination for the 2019/20 Manager of the Season award.
Despite a solid start to the 2020/21 campaign, Chelsea's form dipped over the festive period and Lampard's tenure ended on 25 January 2021 with the club in ninth.
After a year away from management, Lampard succeeded Rafa Benitez at Everton in January 2022. He led the Toffees to Premier League safety on the penultimate day of the season, but couldn’t kick on and was sacked in January this year with Everton 19th in the table.
Classic clash
Chelsea 1 Brentford 4 (Premier League, 2 April 2022)
Christian Eriksen scored his first goal for Brentford as the Bees closed in on Premier League safety by outclassing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Thomas Frank's side produced a magnificent display to record their first win over Chelsea since 1939, as they came from behind to stun the Blues with three goals in 10 minutes in the second half, before adding a fourth late on to humiliate the Champions League holders.
The Bees enjoyed the better of the first half but were punished for not taking chances when Antonio Rudiger flashed a brilliant 30-yard finish past David Raya three minutes after the restart.
Brentford's response was instant, however, as Vitaly Janelt hammered home the equaliser two minutes later. It was two soon after, as Bryan Mbeumo squared a pass for Eriksen to score in front of the joyous visiting support.
And the Bees were not finished there, as Janelt broke clear again on the hour to beat Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy, before substitute Yoane Wissa completed their glory day in the closing moments.
Match officials
Bees looking for repeat as Madley takes Chelsea clash for second year running
Referee: Andy Madley
Assistants: Harry Lennard and Nick Hopton
Fourth official: Simon Hooper
VAR: John Brooks
Assistant VAR: Timothy Wood
Brentford will be hoping for a repeat of last season’s scenes as Andy Madley takes charge of the Bees' trip to Stamford Bridge for the second year running.
Madley, the older brother of former Select Group Referee Bobby, began his refereeing career on the local Wakefield leagues. He quickly advanced through the levels to become a Football League assistant in 2008. Three years later he progressed to the National List, officiating in the three Football League divisions.
It wasn't until 2014 that the Yorkshire official took charge of a Brentford game, which came in the shape of a 3-1 win at Peterborough United on New Year’s Day. Just over a year later, he was in charge of a 2-0 win against Reading to set up a final day Play-Off shoot-out against Wigan Athletic.
Since then he has taken charge of further wins over Burton Albion in March 2017, a game which saw Dean Smith’s side come from 3-1 down to win 5-3, QPR in April 2018, and Southend United in August 2018. He was also the official for a 3-3 draw away at Barnet in that season's Emirates FA Cup fourth round.
In total, we have won six and lost six of Madley's 13 previous matches.
Chelsea 22/23
334 fouls – 10th in Premier League
65 yellow cards – 7th in Premier League
3 red cards – 2nd in Premier League