Chelsea took advantage of its rivals’ stumbles to move two points away from the top of the English Premier League, but made a great effort to achieve a difficult 2-1 victory over Brentford.
The Blues did not make the same mistake as Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City who all drew at home earlier in the weekend, but they made a great effort to overcome a Brentford side who have taken just one point away from home all season.
They were given a deserved lead on the stroke of half-time when Mark Cucurella scored his first Premier League goal for the Blues minutes before half-time, having dominated the first half without creating many clear-cut chances.
Nicholas Jackson should have finished off the game on the hour mark when he headed in Jadon Sancho’s poignant cross from six yards, without which the Blues’ narrow lead remained always precarious.
Brentford went close, as momentum began to shift and Christian Norgaard made a brilliant fingertip stop from Robert Sanchez, before Fabio Carvalho’s shot rebounded off the crossbar, just inches from crossing the goal line.
Enzo Maresca’s celebrations to concede Jackson’s second goal after a quick counter-attack summed up the relief around Stamford Bridge 10 minutes from time as Chelsea finally gave themselves a cushion to defend.
But even then, a pass from Cucurella to the hospitalized Moises Caicedo neatly finished off a Brentford counter-attack through Bryan Mbeumo, leaving the Blues to see out seven tense minutes of stoppage time before they could finally celebrate the theft of their title run. Competitors win.
More to follow…
The story of the match in statistics…
What’s new in the Premier League?
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