Liam Rosenior\u2019s first Premier League outing ended with a 2-0 victory over Brentford, but the result papered over a number of issues Chelsea must address. The win halted a run of eight consecutive matches without a clean sheet and lifted Chelsea above their visitors to sixth in the table.<\/p>\n
Robert S\u00e1nchez was the defining figure. His first-half stop to prevent Tosin turning a ball into his own net and a second save to deny Kevin Schade underlined a return to form after a midweek dip. Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez was influential in midfield; his pressure led to Jo\u00e3o Pedro\u2019s opener when a poor Michael Kayode pass deflected into Pedro\u2019s path and VAR awarded the goal.<\/p>\n
At full back, Reece James looked uncomfortable and well below his usual standards, exemplified by a corner that went straight out of play. Marc Cucurella enjoyed license to roam but was inconsistent. In central defence Trevoh Chalobah largely matched Igor Thiago, though Schade\u2019s pace caused him problems. Tosin Adarabioyo was dominant inside his own 18 yards and won every aerial ball before being forced off with injury.<\/p>\n
In midfield Mois\u00e9s Caicedo did a lot of solo defending and keyed efforts to target Mikkel Damsgaard. Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez at times tried to be too clever in the final third but pressed effectively for the opening goal. Pedro Neto was lively and created chances, while Cole Palmer, still not fully fit after a groin issue, looked sluggish but delivered a precise penalty.<\/p>\n
Alejandro Garnacho worked hard but his end product was frustrating, most notably a miss from five yards after a fine Neto cross. Jo\u00e3o Pedro showed composure to take his goal and caused problems when operating in the box.<\/p>\n
Rosenior altered the shape early in the second half, bringing on Andrey Santos for Garnacho and, later, Wesley Fofana and Liam Delap, the latter converting a penalty after a poor touch from Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher led to a foul. With heavy Brentford pressure at times and unrest among supporters outside the ground, Rosenior switched to a back five to close out the victory.<\/p>\n
Substitutes: Andrey Santos (57\u2019 for Garnacho) 6.5; Wesley Fofana (57\u2019 for Tosin) 6.5; Liam Delap (74′ for Pedro) 6.6; Jorell Hato (85\u2019 for Fern\u00e1ndez) N\/A; Josh Acheampong (85\u2019 for James) N\/A. Unused: Filip J\u00f6rgensen (GK), Beno\u00eet Badiashile, Marc Guiu, Tyrique George.<\/p>\n
Starting XI: Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher; Michael Kayode, Kristoffer Ajer, Nathan Collins, Rico Henry; Yehor Yarmoliuk, Vitaly Janelt; Mikkel Damsgaard, Mathias Jensen, Kevin Schade; Igor Thiago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rosenior wins 2-0 on Premier League debut as S\u00e1nchez keeps Chelsea safe and Palmer seals a penalty..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[728,190,172],"tags":[944,1089,319],"class_list":["post-6016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brentford","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-andrey-santos","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}