Brentford 3-0 Chelsea ended in a heavy defeat for Xabi Alonso’s side, with Levi Colwill admitting afterward that Chelsea had been “bullied” at set pieces. Chelsea competed well during a goalless first half. Brentford, though, changed the game after the break, scoring from a corner before capitalizing on a lost-possession counterattack and adding a stoppage-time third.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the final whistle, Colwill was blunt about where the game turned: “It was tough. First of all, seeing the set piece, obviously we weren’t the best. We tried to push and maybe overexpose ourselves, play some passes we shouldn’t have, and forced it.
They hit us on the counter, which they’re so good at, and got the second goal. The third goal really hit home and hurt.”
Colwill went further on the broader pattern: “In the second half, we weren’t good enough, obviously. We’ve got a lot to work on over the international break. We have not been good enough, at times we have been bullied and we need to improve at that, but we trust in our set-piece coach, we are still adjusting to new things, but we do need to improve as a team.”
Colwill’s set-piece admission lines up exactly with how Brentford broke the deadlock. Mikkel Damsgaard’s 61st-minute corner found not one but two unmarked Brentford players. Jannik Schuster rose highest to head back across goal, and Jaidon Anthony had the simple task of nodding in from virtually on the line, according to the Evening Standard’s match report.
Brentford’s second goal, in the 83rd minute, came after Chelsea lost possession and Brentford broke quickly on the counter, according to Read Chelsea’s match report. Kevin Schade drove the move forward, Emiliano Martínez got a touch to the initial effort, but Igor Thiago was on hand to convert the rebound for his first league goal of the season
Brentford completed the rout in stoppage time when substitute Fabio Carvalho blasted home a low Schade cross. The result stretched Chelsea’s winless Premier League run to three matches, and came despite a genuinely encouraging opening 45 minutes.
Alonso’s side, featuring first Premier League starts of the season for Jordan Henderson (making his Chelsea debut against his former club) and Danny Welbeck, reached half-time level. They looked far less chaotic defensively than they had at times earlier this season. Pedro Neto had the game’s first real chance, only for Caoimhín Kelleher to produce a strong save.
The absence of João Pedro through injury was hard to ignore. His replacement, Welbeck, wasn’t quite able to act as the same fluid link between Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers that Pedro typically provides. While Chelsea competed well for large stretches, they struggled to turn possession into clear opportunities during a cagey first half.
Chelsea has a specific, fixable problem rather than evidence of a squad-wide malaise. It compounds the set-piece issue Colwill flagged, because a Chelsea side that can’t consistently create chances at the other end has even less margin for the kind of moments that decided this game. Chelsea’s set pieces have become a genuine problem in their own right this season. The more pressing concern was how poorly they defended Brentford’s delivery specifically.
Colwill’s honesty here matters for the same reason Xabi Alonso’s comments after the Hull draw did a week earlier: naming a specific, recurring problem is different from fixing it. The Blues have now failed to win their last three games in the English Premier League under Xabi Alonso.
The international break now gives Alonso and his coaching staff time to address the defensive issues Colwill identified. Chelsea’s next Premier League match will provide the first opportunity to see whether those adjustments have translated into a more reliable defensive structure.
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Brentford 3-0 Chelsea was ultimately a game of two very different halves. A competitive, well-organized first 45 minutes were undone by a mismarked corner, a lost-possession counterattack, and a stoppage-time flourish.
Colwill named the problem directly. He mentioned set pieces specifically, and a broader tendency to be physically overpowered. It is a useful diagnostic for Chelsea supporters, even if it doesn’t guarantee a fix.
With the international break arriving at exactly this moment, Alonso has time to work on the issue, but no match to prove it before Chelsea’s players report back for club duty. The real test of whether Saturday’s admission leads anywhere comes in Chelsea’s first game back.
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