Brentford 2 vs. Chelsea 0
When Chelsea supporters believed things couldn't possibly get much worse, they did.
Frank Lampard, the interim manager, has now presided over five consecutive games despite having only five.
The R word was used in the press box, and the more time Chelsea goes without a point, much alone a victory, the closer it gets to the unbelievable.
This night's 2-0 loss by Brentford at the once-fortified Stamford Bridge demonstrated the enormous gap in Premier League knowledge and effort between the teams.
Chelsea has 39 points after 32 games and is currently in 11th place.
The Blues are nine points clear of the bottom two spots if Everton wins tomorrow.
Their subsequent three games are against Nottingham Forest at home, Bournemouth and Arsenal on the road.
Can one of those games be won by them?
The unimaginable is now seriously being considered.
The host team got the game underway as if they had never played before.
There was a lot of low-risk passing, largely between the midfield and defence; any attempt to look past the Brentford rearguard was effectively thwarted, and there was only a faint indication of a swift counterattack.
Given that the Blues have lost all four of Frank Lampard's games as caretaker head coach, perhaps this extreme caution was warranted.
When they held the ball, Brentford controlled the game and appeared appreciative of this strategy.
It took the home team until the 14th minute to go close to Brentford's goal. Ben Chilwell made a rapid burst to the left and his cross into the box was fiercely cleared away by Ethan Pinnock.
Thiago Silva's on-target jet-week header on the 23rd minute was their first shot on goal.
On the 30th minute, Frank Onyeka appeared to have been knocked over by Trevoh Chalobah, but Brentford's appeal for a penalty was turned down by referee Andrew Madley.
As the game continued to open up, Enzo eventually forced David Raya to make a fingertip save.N'Golo Kante's errant left-foot shot epitomised the Blues' lack of discipline in the closing third.
Two minutes later, Raheem Sterling made the same effort, with the same absurd outcome.
On minute 37, an unfortunate Cesar Azpilicueta was the victim of a Brentford corner that smacked off his side and curled into Kepa's net to give the noisy neighbours from Brentford a well-deserved lead. Chelsea's folly up forward was only matched by the nonsense of their defending.
Naturally, Lampard made adjustments; Conor Gallagher and Azpilicueta were replaced by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mykhailo Mudryk.
The home crowd experienced an upsurge in energy and a greater sense of urgency to move on. The crowd cheered following an unsuccessful overhead kick by Aubameyang, a low drive by him shortly after, and a clipped header that flew over Raya's crossbar.
On the 56th minute, Silva missed a free kick from Mudryk by only millimetres.
Rico Henry and Wesley Forfana were both arrested for theft after Henry knocked over Sterling.
Lampard went back to the bench and brought on Joao Felix and Chukwuemeka Madueke on loan when the substitutions failed to produce the expected results—a goal.
Before it could happen, though, Bryan Mbeumo of Brentford broke away on the right and blasted the ball past Kepa by cutting inside. Silva provided a decisive deflection for the ball, but the harm had already been done.
A few seconds later, Enzo and Sterling took off.
The Brentford supporters' mocking chants of "We want you to stay" after chants of "Sacked in the morning" only served to aggravate the already ripe and deeply bleeding wounds.
Teams: Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Sterling, Kovacic, Chilwell, Gallagher, Kepa, Enzo, Silva, and Forfana
Aubameyang, Pulisic, Felix, Loftus-Cheek, Mudryk, Ziyech, Madueke, and Badiashile are all substitutes.
Wissa, Zanka, Onyeka, Mee, Toney, Janelt, Roerslev, Raya, Henry, Pinnock, Brentford
Cox, Hickey, Stade, Dasilva, Ghoddos, Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Baptiste, Stevens are substitutes.
