It was second win of the season away at west London rivals Brentford and as in the Premier League encounter our goalkeeper was voted Chelsea man of the match. In October it was Edou Mendy, this time it was Kepa, but there was no late siege on our goal this time with the Blues finishing the game the stronger and scoring the two decisive goals.All three of the saves Kepa made came in the first half. Four of Brentford keeper Alvaro Fernandez’s seven saves came in the second half.

There were other contrasts between the league and the cup games too, showing that the latest was a more warranted win. Whereas Ben Chilwell’s goal was our only on-target effort in the league game compared with seven by Brentford, last night those figures were seven to three in our favour.Overall, we had more than three times as many shots and twice as much of the possession than Brentford did last night.Our Expected Goals measure was much healthier than the 0.27 back in October although the fact Brentford slightly shaded it on that stat yesterday is another sign of how Kepa kept them at bay.

Solid rearguard

Also key to the clean sheet of course were the back-three ahead of Kepa, and while Cesar Azpilicueta was prominent on the ball with by some distances the most touches of anyone on the pitch (141) and the most key passes leading to chances on goal (four), Trevoh Chalobah and Malang Sarr were called on to do plenty of defending. They made two interceptions each with Chalobah adding to that with seven clearances and Sarr three.

Young Generation

Three teenage players were given their debuts so there were naturally eyes on them. As can be seen from the average position map below, Harvey Vale (no.68) and Jude Soonsup-Bell (no.64) had attacking roles, supported by Ross Barkley (no.18). Xavier Simons (no.54) was at right wing-back.

Vale had the second-most attempts at goal of any player on the pitch after Barkley. The 18-year-old struck one of his two on-target. Two of Barkley’s five worked the keeper. One of those was from a key pass by Soonsup-Bell.Simons was able to join the attacking phase to strike one shot on target.

Back on the ball

The team enjoyed the steadying influence of Mateo Kovacic for the first half last night. He was able to start a game for the first time since the previous round of the Carabao Cup on 26 October, which was followed by injury and Covid.Kova’s 96.8 per cent pass accuracy was our game-high figure, as were his five successful dribbles.Alongside him in midfield, Saul made most tackles in the game and supplied four crosses, three of them accurate, bettered only by Alonso’s seven in total. Three of the left wing-back’s were accurate. He also provided two key passes, bettered only by Azpilicueta in the game.

The young players contributed to the win but credit for helping build momentum that led to the decisive two goals goes to the substitutes introduced, and Jorginho managed 49 touches in the half he played and N’Golo Kante 21 touches in his quarter-of-an-hour. One of those led to Reece James' cross for the own-goal opener.

Christian Pulisic won the penalty for the second goal. Jorginho, responsible for converting it, has now scored four penalties in his last five outings.

The result means of the four times Chelsea and Brentford have been drawn against each other in League Cup or FA Cup, we are the team that went through to the next round.As he did in the Champions League and the FA Cup last season, Thomas Tuchel has guided us into the semi-finals. We of course went further still in those two last season.