Chelsea suffered a shock loss to West London rivals Brentford in a scarcely believable scoreline at Stamford Bridge.
Antonio Rüdiger’s remarkable long-range effort put the Blues into the lead just after half time, before three goals in ten second half minutes gave the visitors the ascendency.
The Bees added a fourth in the closing minutes to round up anextraordinary victory.
Line-up & formation issues :
Chelsea came into this fixture on the run of 12 wins from their last 13; seemingly finding more consistency after reverting to their accustomed 3-4-3 in February.
Thomas Tuchel lined up in a 4-3-3 in possession on Saturday, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek assuming an unfamiliar single-pivot role behind Mount and Kanté. Chelsea struggled to control possession in the early stages and suffered several negative transitions.
The hosts were far from their fluid best, with Kai Havertz, Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech struggling to forge patterns up front all afternoon.
Christian Nørgaard and Janelt dominated the Chelsea midfield and there was plenty of space for Brentford on the flanks, as Rico Henry and Mads Roerslev repeatedly charged past Azpilicueta and Alonso.
Alonso in particular laboured down the left, struggling to establish any sort of progressive connection with the frustrating Werner.
The visitor’s 5-3-2 perfectly negated Chelsea’s systematic patterns of finding space out wide and fully deserved the three points. Toney and Mbeumo bullied Thiago Silva and Rüdiger, whose goal did little to change the momentum of the match, Moments later Ivan Toney and Mbeumo linked up and, as Chelsea’s midfield disappeared, Janelt ran through to lash a rising shot past Edouard Mendy in goal.
Chelsea were all over the place, akin to last season’s 5-2 thrashing by West Bromwich Albion (which, incidentally, likewise took place on the first Saturday following the March international break). Eriksen made it 2-1, then Toney released Janelt to score his second with a lovely dink and the rout was complete when poor defending from Rüdiger teed up Wissa.
Thomas Tuchel must demand a fitting response from his players when Spanish giants Real Madrid visit Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
Player Ratings :
Mendy (5); Azpilicueta (6), Silva (5), Rüdiger (5), Alonso (4); Loftus-Cheek (5), Kanté (5), Mount (6); Ziyech (5), Havertz(6), Werner (4).
