Chelsea 2:0 Brentford

Liam Rosenior’s first Premier League game in charge of Chelsea ended in victory as his side managed to beat Brentford 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Joao Pedro’s sharp strike and Cole Palmer’s penalty were enough to separate the two teams, but Keith Andrews’ men will be left wondering how they squandered the number of chances they created to get something out of the game.

Chelsea fans protested the club’s board before the game, but the result left those in blue smiling as their new head coach made an ideal start to his Premier League tenure.

The visitors started the better of the two sides, and would have taken the lead through Tosin Adarabioyo’s own goal had Robert Sanchez failed to save the ball.

Only a few minutes later came the first Premier League goal of Rosenior’s reign. After multiple moves collapsing on the edge of the Brentford box, Chelsea finally found some luck as the ball deflected into the path of Joa Pedro, who smashed his effort into the roof of the net.

The goal was initially ruled out for offside, only for VAR to overturn the decision, and Chelsea began to succumb to pressure from Brentford.

The goal opened the game and both sides spurned great chances afterwards. Mathias Jensen watched his volley from inside the area bounce off the woodwork, while Alejandro Garnacho somehow missed with a gaping goal from the penalty area soon after.

Sanchez continued to silence his critics as he produced a brilliant save to deny Kevin Shade early in the second half, before Igor Thiago saw his header whistle agonizingly wide.

Brentford were forced to rue missed chances as Nathan Collins left Caoimhin Kelleher in trouble with a terrible back pass, when Liam Delap pounced on a poor touch from the keeper to win a penalty, which the returning Palmer coolly put away.