Bryan Mbeumo is helping Brentford rub salt into neighbors Chelsea’s wounds

If Mauricio Pochettino is to turn into Chelsea’s new supervisor he should probably have priced in the actual possibility of reputational injury. Their newest providing was once but any other monument to the bloated, decadent, temporary considering that has led them to the ground part at warp velocity underneath Todd Boehly and might but convey additional lows. They have turn into a membership that taint nearly everybody they contact and no one looking at an incoherent, uninspired crew of people laboring in opposition to a gutsy and united Brentford would be expecting that to modify in a single day.

Time will unquestionably be one in all Pochettino’s maximum urgent necessities within the match he indicators a freelance. Frank Lampard, like maximum who occupy the house dugout right here, isn’t about to get pleasure from that and can leave 5 video games from now, except he turns into the most recent caretaker supervisor at a Premier League membership to be proven his playing cards early. He can’t be blamed for the shambles that continues to spread however Chelsea had idea he would possibly a minimum of coax a music from a puzzled, drifting squad. Instead he has overseen a run of 5 defeats from 5 and his group patently can’t stay up for the season to finish.

“At the moment there’s clearly a confidence problem and I can see that in the players’ faces afterwards,” mentioned Lampard after Chelsea had been loudly booed off. They had advanced fairly with the period introductions of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mykhailo Mudryk, who had been despatched on so as to add spark after a staid beginning lineup had long past in the back of to César Azpilicueta’s personal function, however a flurry of force didn’t convey transparent possibilities and Brentford settled sufficient to show the screw.

Thomas Frank had noticed Aubameyang spurn Chelsea’s best possible alternative for an equaliser, a deflected shot giving David Raya little hassle, prior to creating a triple substitution so that you could opposite the go with the flow. His adjustments had already made an have an effect on prior to some of the learners, Bryan Mbeumo, was once present in house at the proper flank and deployed the afterburners. Mbeumo carried the ball 40 yards prior to transferring within and ripping a decisive end previous Kepa Arrizabalaga; there was once no longer the faintest recommendation Chelsea would possibly come again from there.

“I felt for the players tonight,” Lampard mentioned. “It wasn’t an application thing, I think with 20% more confidence as a group we win. But we didn’t because of the moment we are in.”

Perhaps a more attacking approach from the outset might have pulled them towards the right side of the margin. Lampard has injury problems to contend with, Marc Cucurella joining Reece James, Kai Havertz and Mason Mount on the sidelines, but it raised eyebrows to see him choose a similarly workmanlike side to the one that did not disgrace itself against Real Madrid. A front three of Conor Gallagher and N’Golo Kanté scurrying around Raheem Sterling could not be faulted for honesty and was clearly Lampard’s way of trying to grind Chelsea out of a rut, but it meant their broad control of the first half was achingly sterile.

“I was surprised,” admitted Frank of such a conservative selection by his opposite number. “I’m pleased they showed us so much respect.”

Brentford had won 4-1 here last April but were happy enough with their narrow half-time lead. Their threat had been limited to set pieces and, from Mathias Jensen’s left-sided corner, Mathias Jørgensen’s header struck a helpless Azpilicueta. There was no chance for Arrizabalaga to react and the Bees, who would not land a shot on target until Mbeumo’s goal, had needed a little ingenuity to expose their hosts’ soft centre.

Mudryk, who is showing signs of adapting to the Premier League’s intensity, enlivened Chelsea although anyone capable of the slightest speed and invention would have managed that. He was involved in a move that led to Kanté firing across goal, but his remaining glimmers merely offered a reminder that the club’s muddled use of Aubameyang has left him well short of his sharpest.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that Chelsea are not in the best place but it’s still Stamford Bridge, still unbelievable players,” mentioned Frank, who earned his one hundredth win as Brentford supervisor. But the air of secrecy feels lengthy long past from those portions and Pochettino will require bulletproof self assurance to convey it again.