Raya repels Chelsea to leave Potter frustrated
HAVING used his chance to quiz Graham Potter — in a rare prematch interview between both managers — to highlight one of the difficulties he is facing and ask Chelsea’s head coach why he changes formation so often, Thomas Frank might consider this a moral victory.
Frank and his team found a way to counteract Chelsea and ended the night feeling like they should have been rewarded with an actual one.
Having already made five changes to his starting XI as he sought to manage his players’ workloads, Potter went through his trademark mid-game tweaking and shuffling of his pack — with one switch enforced when Conor Gallagher went off ill early on.
Yet on this occasion, and no matter what Chelsea tried, they could not find the winning combination and Brentford became the first team to stop their West London rivals winning since Red Bull Salzburg in the middle of last month — Potter’s first game in charge.
Five successive victories and four clean sheets had followed for Chelsea since then heading into last night’s match. However, that winning run ended and Brentford were more than worthy of their point.
They could have got all three but just like last season they can consider themselves unfortunate to have come up against an in-form Chelsea goalkeeper.
Kepa Arrizabalaga was not as spectacular as Edouard Mendy was in last season’s 1-0 Chelsea win but he was equally effective.
Frank said: ‘I’m very proud of my team. I simply love the attitude, work ethic and attitude we played with. The lads are so disappointed they didn’t win.
‘To put it in perspective 18 months ago, the day we got promoted, they ( Chelsea) won the Champions League, more or less with the same players. They are one of the biggest clubs in England and the world and we can say if there should be a winner it should be us. That’s very, very impressive.
Potter said: ‘A point was fair. They had chances, we had chances. We pushed and pushed at the end and were probably more likely to score.
‘The positives for us are another clean sheet, another point, that’s four points from two away matches which is positive. When we did control it we did it quite well but it’s a point and we have to move on.’
A first start for promising young striker Armando Broja was the most eye-catching of Potter’s selections.
With his ability to ‘attack space behind’ combined with the need to give Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a rest, Potter felt Broja could take advantage of the room Brentford leave for opposing teams when they push forward.
On a few occasions what Potter foresaw transpired, but Broja and Chelsea were unable to capitalise.
Before a couple of those instances in the first half, Brentford were on top — with Marc Cucurella and Kepa producing important interventions and Bryan Mbeumo having a penalty appeal waved away.
Broja almost connected with Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross the first time Chelsea threatened in the 25th minute, before Trevoh Chalobah’s first piece of important defending on the night after Frank Onyeka’s burst down the right.
The two Spanish keepers, Kepa and David Raya, made a big save apiece and then came the sort of devastating show of speed from Broja that Potter had expected.
He breezed past Ben Mee but flashed the ball across goal having missed a chance to pass to an unmarked Mason Mount.
Brentford had the better of the second half until Potter’s changes helped Chelsea wrestle control of the game away of them after Rico Henry and Ivan Toney had threatened again for Brentford. They had to dig deep at the end and did just that to earn their point.
Raya frustrated Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic and Carney Chukwuemeka, Mateo Kovacic smacked an effort against Mee and Chelsea had shouts for an injury time penalty against Ethan Pinnock waved away.