Brentford welcome Chelsea to Gtech Community Stadium in a West London derby.
Victory could see Brentford improve to fifth if results elsewhere swing in their favour, whilst Chelsea will stay fourth with at least a draw.
Team News
Aaron Hickey is set to be ruled out for Brentford after he missed Friday’s win over Brighton with an ankle injury.
Thomas Stakosha (ankle), Pontus Jansson (hamstring) and Christian Norgaard (Achilles) remain absent.
Chelsea could welcome Hakim Ziyech back after he missed their last two matches due to illness.
Thiago Silva (hamstring) is a doubt but Reece James, Wesley Fofana (both knee) and N’Golo Kante (hamstring) remain absent.
Stat Attack
- Brentford have won one of two previous Premier League meetings against Chelsea (W1, L1).
- Chelsea won their only previous Premier League visit to Brentford (W1), in which they prevailed 1-0 in October 2021.
- Brentford conceded once in each of their two league meetings against Chelsea last season.
- No English forward has been involved in more goals this season than Brentford’s Ivan Toney – 8 goals and 2 assists in 10 league appearances.
- Chelsea have won seven points from three league games against London rivals this season (W2, D1), during which they scored twice in each of those three matches
Prediction
Following a clinical home win over Brighton on Friday evening, Brentford certainly can come into this local derby with real belief if they continue to play confident attacking football, although I would like to see them polish their finishing touch which could be important here.
Chelsea meanwhile weren’t at their best at Aston Villa yet were ultimately clinical to punish errors even if sluggish when on attack, whilst they also defended solidly to weather a variety of Villa attacks so I can see them really providing a difficult challenge for Brentford to break down.
Quite frankly, I don’t think that there is much to split both teams in terms of performance coming into this match which should hopefully make for a competitive game, where Chelsea’s defence will need to try and isolate Toney otherwise a draw could be a decent bet.
Prediction: Brentford 1-1 Chelsea
Result: Brentford 0-0 Chelsea
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