Pochettino to revert to usual setup for Brentford

By Simon Phillips

Chelsea are back in Premier League action this weekend and once again, it’s against a London club.

Brentford make their short trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea for the 12.30pm kick off in front of the TV cameras.

Chelsea are off the back of four games unbeaten, winning three of them – putting themselves into a slightly better league position in 10th.

Brentford have only won one game in their last five and after nine games in, have become the draw specialists drawing the majority, losing three, and winning two.

They are down 14th spot, but just two points below Chelsea.

Chelsea are just four points off top six right now and a win will do wonders.

Chelsea have a big 59% win probability for this game, with Brentford only having 18%.

In their last game, Brentford beat Burnley 3-0 but the visitors did have a player sent off. They’ve lost to Everton and Newcastle this season.

On paper, Chelsea will be considered the favourites for this one, but we must not be taking that for granted because Brentford are a very good team and are more than capable of coming to The Bridge and getting a result on Saturday.

They have a decent manager in Thomas Frank and we know they will arrive very organised, tough to break down, and fully up for the game and ready to match our energy and intensity.

Against Burnley they setup in a 4-3-3 formation, which I expect to match our own formation this weekend.

This fixture probably brings one of the ones with the least amount of history. Chelsea and Brentford have only met 19 times in their history, with Chelsea winning 10 of them and losing 6.

But, it is Brentford who have got the better of Chelsea recently, winning 2-0 at Stamford Bridge back in April, and being unbeaten against Chelsea in the whole of 2022, including a 4-1 win thrashing of Chelsea at The Bridge.

Time to start beating Brentford again, Chelsea!

In terms of Mauricio Pochettino’s starting lineup, it’s now becoming quite hard to call – especially after the surprise lineup he went for against Arsenal; a tactical masterclass that worked a treat and should have seen us win the game.

But will he go for that against Brentford? Or was that just to stop Arsenal controlling the game in the middle of the park? I think it was probably the latter, and I can see something like this from the off on Saturday:

Chelsea XI v Brentford

Chelsea XI v Brentford

There are some very tough calls in here, mostly whether Mykhailo Mudryk starts or Raheem Sterling. Or whether we don’t got with an out and out striker again and get all three of Sterling, Mudryk, and Palmer starting. Part of me thinks we might actually see that again you know? With Palmer playing more centrally, where he is better in my opinion. So I am a bit split, I think we could see that the more I think about it.

The other big call is at the back with either Axel Disasi or Marc Cucurella starting. I think both have been decent in their last few games, so it’s such a tough call to make. I prefer Levi Colwill centrally though so I think I’d use Cucurella at left back. There is even a call that Cucurella has made himself un-droppable right now?

Plenty of big decisions for Pochettino to make and once again, I am glad it is him and not me.

Armando Broja has trained this week and should be available, so there is even a chance that he gets put in.

And the result, and whisper it, I am actually confident of a Chelsea win. I am going for 2-0 to Chelsea!