Analysis, team news, officials and statistics. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Brentford’s Premier League game against Chelsea.
Brentford face Chelsea at the Gtech Community Stadium on Wednesday night.
Both sides come into the game off the back of 2-0 weekend wins, ours over Brighton & Hove Albion, while Chelsea’s victory at Aston Villa was a fifth in six games in all competitions under new boss Graham Potter.
It promises to be a cracking evening of football under the floodlights.
The Opposition
Chelsea
The 2021/22 Premier League season was nothing short of a rollercoaster for Chelsea.
Throughout October and November, they led the way at the top of the league before ceding that spot to eventual champions Manchester City but, most notably, never dropped below third.
That said, losing against Liverpool in both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup finals was a huge kick in the teeth.
Yet the most significant news for Chelsea, and the wider footballing community, came in February, when Blues owner Roman Abramovich announced his intention to hand over stewardship of the club when Russian oligarchs were sanctioned in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A drawn-out saga over the sale of the club dragged on for the next three months and, at one point, even appeared to put Chelsea’s future under increasing danger, but a consortium – fronted by US businessman Todd Boehly, who had tried to buy the club three years earlier - completed its takeover on 30 May and an unprecedented crisis was averted.
The new chairman Boehly adopted an honorary sporting director role at Stamford Bridge during the summer, running the rule over potential targets himself, despite no prior experience working in football.
At times, it seemed there was no end in sight to a spending spree that ultimately bypassed the £200m mark, and included the signings of Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly. There was a focus on tying down some of the best young talent in Europe, too, with 18-year-old Carney Chukwuemeka and 19-year-old Cesare Casadei costing a combined £33m.
In theory, it seemed as though the recruitment drive and positive pre-season would make for a strong start and help to prevent the race for the title being contested by just two teams once again. But the reality was different.
Chelsea scraped past Everton with the help of a Jorginho penalty on the opening day and they were twice pegged back in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham, before a shock 3-0 defeat away at Leeds, which was not helped by a glaring error from goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
They did win two of the next three - against Leicester and West Ham, with a 2-1 away defeat to Southampton sandwiched in between – but after a 1-0 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League, within 24 hours, Boehly made his first significant decision: On 7 September, Thomas Tuchel was sacked as head coach.
“Our goal is to bring a team together, with the academy, first team, with the clubs we want to acquire and develop. All of that needs to be a well-oiled machine and the reality of our decision was that we just weren’t sure that Thomas felt the same way,” Boehly later said, speaking at a conference. “It wasn’t about Zagreb, it’s really about the shared vision for what we wanted Chelsea to look like.”
In a statement posted on Twitter four days after his departure, Tuchel said: “This is one of the most difficult statements I have ever had to write – and it is one which I hoped I would not need to do for many years. I am devastated that my time at Chelsea has come to an end.”
There was no time for sentiment in West London, though, and Graham Potter was brought in as his replacement on 8 September following compensation negotiations with Brighton, who are reported to have raked in £22m for releasing him and his backroom staff from their contracts at the Amex.
There is less than a month until the Premier League pauses for the World Cup, but Potter – who signed a five-year deal, with a focus on developing the wider football operation at Stamford Bridge – has got off to a bright start, with five wins and a draw from six games in all competitions.
His new side have finally started to make inroads to the top four, too, so despite Arsenal and Manchester City leading the way at the summit, the battle to challenge them may not be a lost cause just yet.
The gameplan
With football.london’s Adam Newson
Adam Newson of football.london looks at how Graham Potter’s Chelsea might line up in Hot off the Press: “Chelsea have jumped between back-three and back-four systems under Potter thus far and that tactical flexibility makes it difficult to predict how the starting XI will look. My guess would be Chelsea will go with a back three with Trevoh Chalobah and Kalidou Koulibaly on either side of Thiago Silva to help negate the threat and physical prowess of Ivan Toney. Ahead of them, it’s very much a roll of the dice, as Potter has an array of quality options”
Team News
Thomas Frank's pre-match press conference
Thomas Frank confirmed at his press conference earlier today that Pontus Jansson (hamstring), Thomas Strakosha and Aaron Hickey (both ankle) will all be out until after the World Cup.
Christian Nørgaard and Charlie Goode (both knee) are out running on the grass with the former closing in on a return after nearly two months out.
For Chelsea, Reece James, N’Golo Kante, and Wesley Fofana (all knee) are out tomorrow night while Graham Potter has a decision to make on whether 38-year-old Thiago Silva can play 90 minutes twice in 72 hours.
The Boss
Graham Potter
Graham Potter is unbeaten in six matches since taking over as Chelsea manager last month, winning five of them, further confirming his status as one of the brightest young managers in the game.
Solihull-born, Potter spent a decade in the lower leagues of English football, starting off at home-town club Birmingham City before spells with Stoke City, Southampton, where he made eight Premier League appearances, West Bromwich Albion, York City, Boston United and Macclesfield Town.
After making nearly 400 professional appearances, he retired in 2005 and, shortly after, graduated from the Open University with a degree in Social Sciences. Potter then spent five years working in university football, latterly combining his time as assistant coach at Leeds Metropolitan University with a masters in Leadership and Emotional Intelligence.
In December 2010, he took charge of Östersund, then a fourth-division side in Sweden. He earned back-to-back league titles during his first two-years in charge before taking Östersund to the top flight in 2015. In April 2017, he guided OFK to the Swedish Cup and, later that year, made history with his side becoming the first Swedish club to progress beyond the Europa League group stage. Potter joined Swansea in June 2018 after nearly eight years in Sweden.
He guided Swansea to tenth during his one season in charge before replacing Chris Hughton on the South Coast in the summer of 2019.
His three years with the Seagulls saw them set club records for their highest-ever finish in the top flight, most points in a top flight season, most goals in a top flight season, and most clean sheets in a top flight season before Chelsea came calling last month.
Opposition View
Graham Potter told chelseafc.com: "Brentford are a really good at what they do. They use the quality of their players well. They have limited resources, compared to the rest of the Premier League, but they make the most of what they have. It’s a credit to Thomas and his staff. They use Ivan Toney well, but it is not just that; they attack with clarity and defend with aggression and organisation. They are a tough team to play against”
Last Time Out
Chelsea 1 Brentford 4
Match Officials
Referee: Jarred Gillett
Assistants: Simon Long and Richard West
Fourth official: Robert Madley
VAR: Michael Salisbury
Assistant VAR: Steve Meredith
Born on the Gold Coast, Australia, highly rated A League referee Jarred Gillett emigrated to England in 2019 to study at Liverpool John Moore’s University, specialising in research on children with Cerebral Palsy, going on to make his EFL officiating debut in April of that same year.
Tomorrow’s game will be Gillett’s fifth game in charge of us, with two wins, a draw and a defeat coming from the previous four.
He took charge of our 2-1 Sky Bet Championship victory over AFC Bournemouth in December 2020 and then returned to take the 3-1 Play-Off semi-final victory over the same opponents the following May.
Gillett made history in September last year, becoming the first overseas official to referee a Premier League match when he took charge of Watford v Newcastle United, the month before he took charge of our home defeat to Norwich City at the Gtech Community Stadium.
The 35-year-old got things underway for us this season by taking our 2-2 opening-day draw at Leicester City.
Chelsea 22/23
93 fouls – 14th in Premier League
20 yellow cards – sixth in Premier League
2 red cards – most in Premier League