Brentford beat Chelsea at home for the first time since 1938, and they still have not lost this season
Jaidon Anthony, Igor Thiago and Fábio Carvalho scored in the last half hour at the Gtech. Brentford are third and unbeaten, Chelsea seventh and winless in three.
Sep 19, 2026
Brentford beat Chelsea 3-0 at the Gtech Community Stadium on Friday night, a result that landed in India in the early hours of Saturday and left the Bees third in the Premier League, still unbeaten, and the owners of their first home win over Chelsea since October 1938.
A corner, a rebound and a finish in stoppage time
For an hour this was tight. Chelsea had the better of the opening exchanges and the best chance of the half, Pedro Neto getting a shot away in the ninth minute that Caoimhín Kelleher pushed clear. Neither side made much of the rest of the first half.
Then Mikkel Damsgaard swung in a corner on 61 minutes, Jannik Schuster headed it back across the six-yard box, and Jaidon Anthony headed in from close range. Chelsea had 30 minutes to respond and did not find a shape to do it in. Kevin Schade broke away on 83, his shot was saved, and Igor Thiago steered the awkward rebound inside the post. Fábio Carvalho added the third four minutes into stoppage time.
Damsgaard was the best player on the pitch by some distance. Brentford have built a team around players nobody else particularly wanted and a set-piece routine that keeps paying, and the first goal was exactly that combination.
Chelsea have not won in three, and the table is starting to show it
Xabi Alonso’s side are seventh with seven points from five games. They have lost at Arsenal, drawn 2-2 at home with Hull City, and now been beaten without scoring at a ground where they had not lost since before the Second World War. Twelve goals conceded in five matches is the number that will worry him most, because Chelsea’s attack has actually produced ten at the other end.
The squad still looks like a work in progress. Jordan Henderson made his first Chelsea start on Friday, having spent the early weeks of the season recovering from the broken arm he picked up at the World Cup. Danny Welbeck, signed from Brighton in the summer, made his first league start for the club in place of the injured João Pedro. Off the pitch, Clearlake Capital took full control of Chelsea this week when Todd Boehly and Mark Walter sold their shares and Boehly stepped down as chairman. None of that excuses a winless run, but it is the week Alonso has just had.
Keith Andrews has taken nine points off five games and lost none of them
Brentford have won two and drawn three, scored ten and conceded four. Only Arsenal and Manchester City, both with four wins from four, sit above them. Keith Andrews, who was the set-piece coach here until he replaced Thomas Frank in 2025, is signed through to 2032.
Whether they hold third is a different question. Brentford drew three games in a row before this one, and a squad this size tends to find October and November harder than September. But they opened the season by beating Tottenham 3-0 and have now done the same to Chelsea, and they have not been beaten by anybody. On this evidence a European place is not a fantasy.