On Wednesday, Brentford and Chelsea battled to a scoreless tie. As a result, Chelsea is now in fourth place in the Premier League standings with 20 points, seven points behind league-leading Arsenal, while Brentford has broken its tie for ninth place with 14 points. For the best online and sports betting casinos check out our other pages!
Graham Potter, the manager of Chelsea, made five further changes to the lineup after Sunday’s 2-0 victory at Aston Villa.
Few would contest the need for some rotation given the compressed timetable leading up to the World Cup and the fact that he has won all seven of his matches as a coach. However, until the substitutions of Christian Pulisic, Carney Chukwuemeka, and Raheem Sterling, Chelsea lacked much movement.
The most animated of the three, Pulisic had a powerful attempt blocked by David Raya in the 89th minute.
The star player for the American men’s national team has only been given two starts this year, and he is desperate for more chances. That must begin somewhere, and following his goal against Wolves ten days ago, this was another step in the right direction on a path he will aim to continue in the upcoming weeks before traveling to Qatar.
Kepa Arrizabalaga put on a similarly resolute display to win Chelsea a 0-0 draw at Brentford on Wednesday, a match in which Edouard Mendy had to play at the top of his game.
Although Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo, in particular, were responsible for missing great opportunities, this wasn’t quite the all-action performance Mendy put on. Nevertheless, Kepa still made a number of excellent stops, notably in the first half when Brentford was at their best.
But only five minutes into the second half, Mbeumo gave them the easiest out by planting a free header from close range directly at an appreciative Kepa. However, Potter praised Kepa before the game for the work he had done to unseat Mendy after being largely ignored by Thomas Tuchel.
The Spanish goalkeeper, for his part, repeated his goaltending rival at the site of one of his best performances, making a total of five saves.
It has taken a while for Armando Broja to make his complete Chelsea debut. After beginning his career with the Blues at the under-9 level and completing loan stints at Vitesse Arnhem and Southampton, he was given the opportunity to lead the Chelsea line for the first time on Wednesday. He has only made 10 substitute appearances totaling 178 minutes prior to this trip to Brentford.
In reality, he received little service as the Blues fought to maintain any fluidity. By beating Ben Mee to Mateo Kovacic’s optimistic clipped pass over the Brentford defense despite starting from a distance of many yards, Broja was able to create a moment out of nothing. However, nothing came of it, and as Brentford kept up the pressure, the 21-year-old was replaced shortly after the hour mark as Potter tried to rearrange his assault.
There were enough signs of promise to imply that Broja could have a bigger influence, but he is still developing. There is little question that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will get the ball rolling for Chelsea in their next match on Saturday against Manchester United.
