Chelsea travel across West London to face Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Friday evening, with kick-off at 8pm BST. Alonso’s side are sixth in the Premier League on seven points, a place and point better off than Keith Andrews’ Bees in seventh.
The visitors arrive with a troubling defensive paradox; they’ve scored 10 league goals but conceded nine in four games. That figure for goals conceded is the worst in the division’s top nine, and the Blues have let in at least two goals in every league game so far.
That frailty was laid bare in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Hull City at Stamford Bridge, where the scoreline showed a deeper malaise. Chelsea had 68% possession and 36 touches in the opposition box, but they lost the xG battle 1.49 to 0.89 against the promoted Tigers.
They were equally poor in the final third, with Chelsea completing just six of their 28 crosses and winning just 30% of their tackles. The uncertainty is compounded by team news, with Joao Pedro and captain Reece James missing Tuesday’s training session. Both absences are not injury-related, while Moises Caicedo, Jordan Henderson and Emmanuel Emegha are all slim hopes to play.
Meanwhile, Brentford are on a six-match unbeaten run in all competitions after beating Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 on the opening day of the season and followed that up with three successive league draws. But Andrews will be without defensive lynchpins Nathan Collins and Sepp van den Berg, as well as Joshua Dasilva and Antoni Milambo.
Brentford’s tough home stand against Chelsea to be led by Kevin Schade
The most incisive attacking weapon this season has been Brentford’s Kevin Schade, who has scored three goals in five appearances in all competitions. The German forward scored twice in a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth last weekend and was arguably the Player of the Match.
His second came from a misplaced pass by Bournemouth keeper Djordje Petrovic just four minutes after Marcus Tavernier had given the hosts the lead. However, Brentford were perhaps fortunate to leave the south coast with a point, with Bournemouth’s xG at 2.18 compared to the Bees’ meagre 0.50.
History, though, is very much on Andrews’ side as Brentford have drawn each of their last four home Premier League meetings with Chelsea. The most recent 2-2 came in September 2025 when Schade netted the opener before Fabio Carvalho’s stoppage-time leveller cancelled out goals from Cole Palmer and Caicedo.
Chelsea did win 2-0 in the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge in January, with Joao Pedro and a Palmer penalty sealing the points. But Brentford are still without a home league win in five games against the Blues, and Schade will be eager to rectify that on Friday night.