Moises Caicedo’s late pearler looked for all the world as though it would earn the Blues a 2-1 win to disguise a below-par performance.
Enzo Maresca’s side were left to rue missed chances by Cole Palmer either side of Carvalho’s goal, after it had been Palmer the substitute who levelled the game following Kevin Schade’s first-half opener.
Palmer’s impact almost immediate
Chelsea’s best player came to the fore when they needed him most.
After only one and a half training sessions with the team, on Thursday and Friday, he was named on the bench and introduced after 56 minutes as the ineffective Jamie Gittens gave way.
He had only been on the pitch for five minutes when he instinctively came on to Joao Pedro’s slightly fortuitous knock-down, slamming a first-time, side-foot volley into the corner of the net.
It was a fine goal by a player Chelsea need back to his best ahead of trips to Bayern Munich and Manchester United, and it ended a run of 1,582 minutes since his last open-play goal in the Premier League.
The only thing missing from Palmer’s lively display from the bench was the late winner. He shot tamely into the goalkeeper and blazed over the bar with late efforts that, if they had gone in, would surely have inspired Chelsea to an ugly but wholly welcome victory – a victory that never came.
Moises Caicedo: goal threat
It was a sensational goal from an unfamiliar source that seemed to have secured three points for Chelsea, but Caicedo’s ferocious effort did not prove the winner as Carvalho stole in from a long throw and earned Brentford a last-gasp draw.
That takes nothing away from the Ecuadorian’s strike, though.
On target: Moises Caicedo
Bradley Collyer/PA Wire
Caicedo had only netted three goals for the club before this season, but he now had two from Chelsea’s first four league games of the campaign after also notching at West Ham.
The technique on display for his strike at the Gtech was something to behold, a crisp drive that rose up and flew into the net. Chelsea thought it was their ‘get out of jail free’ card. It was not.
Brentford are a more limited team now that Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and ex-manager Thomas Frank have left the club, so it is no surprise they have become a slightly more direct team in the early weeks under Frank’s successor, Keith Andrews.
Chelsea struggled at times to deal with that, all too often jumping too early for headers and ultimately undone by a long-ball counter and a long throw.
Jordan Henderson’s assist for Kevin Schade’s opener was sensational, but it was made to look better by quite how much it wrong-footed Tosin Adarabioyo.
And there were five Chelsea players all outjumped in the air by Kristoffer Ajer, whose knock-on allowed Carvalho to steam in and grab Brentford a point that they did, on balance, deserve.
It was generous defending – and costly – from a Chelsea back-line that has been the Premier League’s best defence since February.
