Chelsea moved two points off the top of the Premier League table on Sunday after beating Brentford 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.
A 43rd-minute goal from Marc Cucurella put the hosts 1-0 up before Nicolas Jackson made sure of the three points with just 10 minutes to go. Bryan Mbeumo pulled one back for Brentford in stoppage time but it was too little, too late for Thomas Frank’s side.
This was Chelsea’s fifth consecutive league victory — the first team to achieve this feat in the English top flight in 2024-25.
Enzo Maresca’s side are now two points behind table-topping Liverpool, though Arne Slot’s side do have a game in hand.
Here, Simon Johnson analyses and evaluates the key talking points from the match.
Chelsea’s brilliant run goes on
The remarkable thing about Chelsea’s remarkable form is that they could be top of the Premier League by the time Liverpool play their next fixture at Tottenham Hotspur.
Win at Everton next Sunday and Marseca’s team will be top, at least for a few hours.
The Italian and the club’s hierarchy may not think they are title contenders, but their form continues to suggest otherwise. They are the first team to win five league games in a row this season for starters.
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Perhaps the encouraging thing is that Chelsea were not even at their best in their win over Brentford. They laboured in their attempts to break them down for long periods and had Fabio Carvalho’s shot rebounded off the underside of the bar and over the line, rather than in front of it, when the score was still 1-0 then it could have been a different story.
A happy Maresca at Stamford Bridge (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Even at 2-0 Chelsea conspired to make it a nervous final few minutes after allowing Brentford to counter attack from their own throw-in to narrow the deficit.
It was actually no surprise Chelsea were made to work this hard. Maresca had been worried about this game for some time, highlighting the need for the fans to be behind the team soon after the Tottenham fixture had finished and again in the build-up over the last few days.
You can understand his concern. While Brentford’s away form has been poor in the Premier League this season, they have loved playing Chelsea on their own pitch. Since winning promotion in 2021, they have won all three matches at Stamford Bridge.
Brentford head coach Frank may have also come to the venue looking to prove a point having came very close to being appointed Chelsea head coach in the summer only to lose out to Maresca.
In the end Chelsea hung on, something they may not have been able to do in previous seasons.
Cucurella’s rollercoaster week
What a difference a week makes for Cucurella.
Chelsea may have won at Tottenham last Sunday, but the Spaniard’s display will be most remembered for slipping up a couple of times to gift Spurs a two-goal head start and then changing his new Puma boots for old ones.
The footwear he started out with ended in the bin following the 4-3 victory and this sparked a bit of PR-damage limitation.
A picture of the boots in the trash was deleted from his social media. Why? What made the scenario so awkward is that Cucurella has a boot sponsorship deal with Puma, although the company subsequently put out a new photo on social media making light of the situation.
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Importantly Cucurella, a candidate for Chelsea’s best player this season, was back to his energetic best against Brentford. He didn’t look like he would keel over whenever the ball came near him for starters.
Cucurella on the ball against Brentford (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
As Chelsea laboured to break a stubborn Brentford down, it was his determination to win the ball back that provoked the crowd into making some noise. Cucurella took every opportunity to get forward and was rewarded for his efforts before half-time by heading in Noni Madueke’s fine cross.
It was his first Premier League goal for Chelsea and helped ease the nerves that were beginning to build at Stamford Bridge.
After the interval, Cucurella seemed to be everywhere it mattered most as Chelsea tried to see the game out. Even in injury time he won a foul at a dangerous Brentford set piece, leading to the home fans to chant his name.
And then, after the final whistle, the 26-year-old was sent off for a second bookable offence after pushing Brentford’s Kevin Schade.
Will defensive injuries slow Chelsea’s momentum?
Suddenly Maresca will not have the luxury of being able to rotate his defence quite so much.
The news that Benoit Badiashile has suffered an injury in training, which looks like ruling him out for a while, has come at a bad time. Fellow centre-back Wesley Fofana is already sidelined with a hamstring problem so that means Chelsea could be without two important squad players for the busy Christmas period.
Fofana is Maresca’s first-choice partner for Levi Colwill in the middle of defence, while Badiashile had emerged as the next in the pecking order. Chelsea have four league games in the space of 14 days over Christmas and the new year so it will be up to Tosin Adarabioyo, who started against Brentford, and Axel Disasi to share the workload.
Adarabioyo putting in a challenge (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Academy graduate Josh Acheampong, welcomed back into the fold now that his contract dispute seems to have been resolved, could also be called upon.
Injuries are inevitable during the course of the season, but Maresca will still have cause to be a little concerned that they could disrupt their momentum now. It is probably the only negative to spoil his mood.
What did Enzo Maresca say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Chelsea?
Thursday, December 19: Shamrock Rovers (H), Conference League, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET
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(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
