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Even if Enzo Maresca is blessed with one of the deepest squads in the Premier League, heavy rotation at Brentford presented risk for Chelsea. The Italian rolled the dice and his team surrendered two points. “We try to win every game but know we won’t win every game,” he said, after victory was denied in the closing seconds.
Brentford, despite changes of personnel and manager, remain motivated, dangerous. Keith Andrews’ team closely resembled the Thomas Frank era in the dedication and spirit they maintained to the last kick. After Moisés Caicedo’s pile-driving goal, Chelsea’s second, they kept going. Robert Sánchez was soon asked to make a scrabbling save from Dango Ouattara. That would not be the last of them.
In the 95th minute, Fábio Carvalho bundled home, Chelsea’s defenders allowing the substitute to tap in unmarked at the back post from a Kevin Schade long throw. “It’s a useful tool,” said Andrews of Brentford’s not-so-secret weapon. “Any coach should look to find advantages. It’s been here for numerous years, it’s not new to us. I felt there’s a little bit of snobbery in the game around scenarios like that, but if the big boys now do it then it seems to be accepted.”
Chelsea’s initially unfamiliar lineup had stuttered. With Cole Palmer short of fitness, and Bayern Munich and Old Trafford to come, the loanee Facundo Buonanotte was handed the No 10 role, after a hat-trick in a behind-closed-doors fixture at Cobham. Brighton, his parent club, have never got to the bottom of the Argentinian’s talent. He lasted just 45 minutes at the Gtech. “He needs time,” said Maresca, seeking to calm the waters of a disappointing denouement. “It’s a shame but it happens,” he said. “Probably we could manage that moment of the game better.”
Wesley Fofana at right-back when Reece James and Malo Gusto were both on the bench seemed a ploy to avert Brentford’s set-piece threat while Jorrel Hato standing in for Marc Cucurella at left-back was another experiment with disappointing results. A half-time rethink was required.
Maresca suggested this was all planned: “Always Fofana we plan 45 minutes for him. Hato is similar. Buonanotte the last period has not been great for him knowing he has to go somewhere. Overall they were okay. I think we deserve to win the game in the second half.”
Within five minutes of his second-half arrival, Palmer volleyed in to level Schade’s opener but would rue two later misses. “Cole was not fit to play until the second half,” said Maresca.
Igor Thiago’s early booking was unhelpful for a Brentford striker who has led the division in what statistical wonks term high-intensity pressures in the final third but Chelsea still found him a wholly awkward customer. His partner, Schade, after missing a penalty at Sunderland, made no mistake when sent away by Jordan Henderson to slot past Sánchez. “Kevin’s pace is just sensational and he’s constantly growing in confidence,” said the approving Andrews.
Henderson and the excellent Yehor Yarmoliuk took up Brentford’s midfield slack in the absence of Mikkel Damsgaard, reported sick. Thomas Tuchel was watching, given otherwise slim pickings, with just English two starters on either team of which Keane Lewis-Potter and Jamie Gittens are uncapped. Henderson gets through plenty of pointing, in lieu of the engine that once carried him through many kilometres of long-distance chasing. But the passing radar is retained, judging by that Schade goal. “What you have seen tonight is Jordan,” said Andrews. “He relishes the battle.”
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Maresca’s half-time changes saw Cucurella, James and Tyrique George replacing Hato, Fofana and Buonanotte as Chelsea eventually found some zip. Palmer’s rest lasted until the 55th minute. His goal, his first non-penalty Premier League goal since January, was struck coolly, after João Pedro laid Enzo Fernández’s ball up. A second, in only his second game back after the Club World Cup, ought to have come in the 75th minute, but a side-footed slap from Pedro Neto’s pass did not deceive the commanding, outstanding Caoimhín Kelleher. Further rustiness was shown in a late scuff after Brentford’s equaliser.
Still, Maresca’s gamble appeared to be coming off. Alejandro Garnacho, within six minutes of his Chelsea bow, had supplied the bullet from which Caicedo scored. Game over? Brentford are not to be written off any time yet.
