Brentford boss savours special Friday night as Chelsea humiliated

Brentford (0) 3 v Chelsea (0) 0

Premier League

Matchweek 5

Talking Points

By Kaz Mochlinski at the Brentford Community Stadium

“I just love watching us play” enthused Keith Andrews, entirely understandably, after Brentford brilliantly beat Chelsea 3-0 to repeat the scoreline of their opening weekend victory over Tottenham Hotspur and remain undefeated this season.

Second half goals from Jaiden Anthony, Igor Thiago and Fábio Carvalho made it an unforgettable Friday night for Brentford, as Chelsea were embarrassingly reduced to a ramshackle rabble by the final whistle.

Anthony scored his first goal for the Bees, and Igor Thiago found the net for the first time this season in the Premier League, before Carvalho connected to cap his comeback from surgery for a serious knee ligament injury.

Having not played a competitive match for 318 days, Carvalho has got two goals in two games separated by three days, after helping Brentford win 2-1 at Reading in the Football League Cup earlier in the week.

It added to the delight of his head coach, who celebrated a second consecutive thumping London derby success with the team on another lap of honour, something that has become unexpectedly familiar at the end of Brentford’s home matches.

Andrews believes strongly that the support inside their neatly compact ground has been an important factor in the Bees being competitive against bigger rivals, who are more established and with greater financial resources.

“I just think there’s a really nice connection at the moment between the fans and the players and the club in general. I think it’s growing over time. I think everyone’s enjoying the journey that we’re on. Especially me.

“And I just love watching us play. I love being here. I love feeling that energy from the crowd and the way we play. We want it to be a very difficult place for teams to come, and we need to consistently try and evolve how we play and how we do things.”

Andrews is increasing the variety in Brentford’s approach and also improving those characteristics which have typified them. Two goals came from set-pieces, the first with a corner, the second a long throw, while in between there was a fabulous fast break.

“I just feel with us the way we play we’re unpredictable” he expands. “And we can score from different ways and we can play in different ways.

“So, when we’re in control of games, when we have possession, we can look to create and we can look to cause chaos for the opposition.

“But, even from defending deep and those type of situations we’ve obviously got a serious counter-attack threat. So, yeah, I like a lot of what we do.”

He revealed that the coaches could sense during training that such a performance and result was coming ahead of the humiliating rout of Chelsea, as he happily shared “I was really looking forward to the game.

“I think we’ve shown different kinds of attributes in the last few weeks, where we’ve had to dig deep, show real grit, resilience.

“The opposition has set up in a very respectful way, I feel, to try and nullify what we do, and it’s on us to be honest enough to try and overcome that.

“I felt there was a performance bubbling. Just could see it in the players’ eyes over the last couple of days. I think the coaching has been really focused. And I thought in the second half in particular we showed exactly what we are.”

Brentford had drawn 10 of their previous 14 league matches, including the last three in a row. Chelsea’s four most recent visits had also produced four consecutive draws. This time the stalemate persisted for an hour and was ended by a rehearsed play.

“Every set-piece is worked on” confirmed Andrews. “Sometimes you might get a stroke of luck - it doesn’t go in the right area and someone pops up. But, yes, it’s obviously something we pay close attention to.

“And we felt there was an opportunity tonight. If there was going to be a difference in a game decided on set-pieces, we wanted it to be on our side.”

The preparation paid off pretty much perfectly. And it paved the way to a victory which could set the tone for the rest of the season, although the coach cautioned “It’s amazing the way one game dictates whether it’s an okay start or a really good start.

“But, yeah, it’s been a good start. We’ve been competitive, we’ve been brilliant, we’ve had to dig deep, we’ve had to show loads of different traits in the opening weeks of the season, which you always do in this league.”

Going into an extended international break, Andrews was able to be reflective about the club from beside a ‘bus stop in Hounslow’ and about its continuing progress: “You’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to do the right things.

“But, yeah, with the boys’ habits and the values that we have as a club, and the team, and the way we train, it just all comes out. I think consistently you start to see that now and where we’re at as a team.”

The experience of overcoming Chelsea left Andrews drained but exhilarated: “I feel like I played. It was a really good evening. It’s important you enjoy evenings like this. You work so hard for so many tough days in the game.

“When you play against a West London rival, and you build up to a game, and you go on a bit of a journey, which we are with the team, there’s always bumps along the way, but we’re in a pretty good place and it’s nice to see it come to fruition tonight.”