Will Faulks, Chelsea News , external
Chelsea have had some infuriating results this season, but perhaps none were as frustrating as Saturday’s loss to Brentford.
It was not just the manner of the defeat - in the textbook “start well, get frustrated, concede, panic” pattern we’ve seen countless times now. It was more about the context.
A run of good results had supporters feeling positive, the team seemed to have turned a corner and to finally be coming together… and then, this.
Mauricio Pochettino now has a serious job on his hands in turning Stamford Bridge into a positive factor. At the moment, playing at home seems to crush the team, with the fears of the fans feeding into those of the team and vice versa. Every bad result sends them further into this spiral, and it has now become critical that they turn things around.
Once again, injuries hurt Pochettino, with Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk ruled out the day before the game. We looked significantly weaker without them, but there was more than enough in that starting XI to beat Brentford in a home game.
Some of the blame has to fall on the players, who failed to take advantage of their early dominance, but there has to also be some fault attributed to Pochettino, who continues to frustrate fans with some of his line-up decisions.
However, the fact that his best options on the bench to turn the game around were a pair of teenagers can only be blamed on those operating above him.
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