For Liam Rosenior’s third match in charge, we take on fellow West London outfit Brentford, who are actually the best team in West London at the moment. They come into the weekend sitting a lofty fifth in the table — they’ve never finished higher than ninth in the top tier in their history — having won five of their last six games in all competitions.
Chelsea meanwhile continue to struggle for form. It’s now just one win in seven, after Wednesday’s defeat, and three wins thirteen in all competitions. In the league, we’ve managed just eight points from our last nine games, which is relegation form.
Rosenior isn’t trying to change things too much from what was before, and he’s evidently hoping to engineer a turnaround through just vibes alone. Intense vibes, to be clear, but still just vibes. That’s not necessarily a bad approach. We can be among the best with the right focus and mentality, we’ve proven that already. Just not lately…
“The past is the past. […] I can only affect the now. If I affect the now, I affect the future. For me, I’m not focused on anything that’s happened in the past.”
-Liam Rosenior; source: Football.London
Date / Time: Saturday, January 17, 2026; 15.00 GMT; 10am EST; 8:30pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: John Brooks (on pitch); Stuart Attwell (VAR)
Forecast: Morning rain, light breeze, cool
On TV: none (UK); none (USA); Star Sports Select HD2 (India); SuperSport MaXimo 1, Canal+ Sport 4 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: none (UK); Peacock (USA); JioHotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Chelsea team news: A confluence of illness and injuries left the Blues a bit under-manned against Arsenal midweek, which certainly didn’t help against the league-leaders. That we’re taking just a one-goal deficit to the second leg in a few weeks is almost a decent outcome. It isn’t good, but it certainly could’ve been worse.
Unfortunately, some of those woes are persisting into the weekend, with Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens both still under the weather and Cole Palmer, Reece James, and Malo Gusto all facing late fitness tests. On the plus side, neither Moisés Caicedo nor Marc Cucurella are suspended now, and Dário Essugo has been part of the last couple matchday squads (without featuring). Roméo Lavia is also starting to get close to his latest comeback, so our numbers should improve here shortly (even without dipping into the transfer market for more reinforcements development projects).
Facundo Buonanotte has left in the meantime, joining Leeds United (still just on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion) like he almost did in the summer. We hardly knew ya! Good night, Mr. Good-night.
Brentford team news: Brentford were expected to struggle this season after losing so many big names in the summer, and yet, new manager Keith Andrews has them humming right along in the top-five, doing all the little things right, and getting the results they deserve. They don’t concede many, they score enough, they’re good on set pieces! In today’s Premier League, that’s all you need.
They’ve unearthed a proper goalscorer in Igor Thiago (only Erling Haaland has more than his 16 this season), and goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher has proven an unsurprisingly astute signing. He sure would’ve looked good in Chelsea Blue!
They’ve done a bit of business this month already, most notably signing teenage striker Kaye Furo from Club Brugge (he’s yet to make his debut) and trimming the squad a bit including former Chelsea prospect Myles Pear-Harris, who transferred to Oxford United permanently. MPH, 23 made nine appearances for Brentford over the past four seasons and enjoyed loan spells at Forest Green, Portsmouth, and Swansea City.
The one major absence for the Bees is midfielder Frank Onyeka, still away at the Africa Cup of Nations. Big-money summer signing Dango Outtarra recently returned to fitness and could be set to feature, as could Jordan Henderson despite suffering a knock last week. Fábio Carvalho, Antoni Milambo, and Josh Dasilva are out long-term.
Previously: One of the more frustrating results of the season in the reverse fixture, as Brentford equalized late on … from a long throw. That was the third draw in our last four meetings, though we’ve beaten them just once in our last eight meetings. Yikes.
