The world champions won our most recent allocation of this 3pm Saturday slot, a comfortable 2-0 home success against Everton in mid-December.

Following a comprehensive win and a feisty fightback in domestic cup derbies, Liam Rosenior is aiming to become just the third permanent Chelsea boss since 2013 to taste victory in his first top-flight outing. He was an unused substitute for our opponents Hull City when second-timer Jose Mourinho did just that at the Bridge 13 years ago.

This third assignment of the Rosenior era is also the second of three vital home games on all fronts over eight days, and the latest in a four-match run in London, concluding at Crystal Palace next weekend.

Since last season, Chelsea have lost just one capital clash in the Premier League at the Bridge, the west London derby against Fulham in 2024.

Keith Andrews’ Bees had a free midweek and are buzzing higher than they have all season, on the back of six matches without loss. However, only around a quarter of Brentford’s points total has been earned on the road and they have conceded 18 times on their travels, more than all but four of their league rivals.

A nip-and-tuck 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture upriver at the Gtech Community Stadium in September extended the Blues’ undefeated visits to Brentford to nine across all competitions, with our last away defeat to the Bees coming in 1938.

However, the stat only tells half the story as we have drawn our last four matches at Brentford and have only beaten the Bees once our last eight matches when you include the Bridge too.

Team news

Moises Caicedo is available again after serving a League Cup suspension in midweek. Cole Palmer, Reece James, Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens also missed the first leg of our semi-final with Arsenal, the first two as a precaution and the latter two because of illness.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Rosenior gave an update on those four players' chances of returning in time to face Brentford.

‘With Reece and Cole, both of them are training, so we just need to assess them after training and make sure they come through all of the protocols they need to come through,' said our head coach. ‘But it will be great to have them back in the squad and, at the moment, it looks like they could be.

‘Liam is still at home recovering at the moment, as is Jamie. Our club doctors are doing everything they can to contain what looks to be a virus, because some members of our staff have gone down with it as well.'

The history

West London’s first ever top-flight derby was played between Chelsea and Brentford on 23 November 1935. It finished 2-1 to the Blues, winger Dickie Spence clinching the points in front of a Stamford Bridge audience of 56,624.

In November 1946 another 50,000-plus crowd saw Willie Birrell’s side beat the Bees 3-2, set on our way by brilliant centre-forward Tommy Lawton, in what would be the last top-tier fixture between the pair for 75 years.

Brentford’s return to the big time in 2021/22 brought three straight losses for the Blues at the Bridge – a chaotic 4-1 where the hosts led 1-0 at half-time, then successive 2-0s.

Respite came at last in December 2024. The Blues closed the gap behind leaders Liverpool to two points with a 2-1 victory, two of the goals and a red card for Marc Cucurella coming from the 80th minute. The game was cut and thrust throughout, so it was no surprise when Cucurella’s diving header broke the deadlock just before the break.

Nicolas Jackson’s near-post finish from an Enzo Fernandez pass extended the hosts’ lead with 10 to go, and Bryan Mbeumo notched just before the stoppage-time board was raised. Cucurella’s second yellow came too late to cause genuine concerns.

Know this...

Chelsea have struck the frame of the goal 30 times over the course of this Premier League campaign, second only to Liverpool’s 31.

Alejandro Garnacho has come off the bench to score more goals across all competitions this season (five) than any other top-flight player. On Wednesday, the Argentine became the first Chelsea player in the Premier League era to score a brace in consecutive substitute appearances - against Cardiff City and Arsenal.

The visitors have lost seven of their last 10 top-flight away fixtures and have won just one of their 10 most recent London derbies, at West Ham United in October.

Premier League west London derbies

The Blues’ record league victory against Brentford remains 2-0 away in 1946/47. We are yet to beat them by more than a single goal at the Bridge.

Brentford have scored 12 Premier League goals in total against Chelsea, 11 of them after half-time.

The Bees have matched their record Premier League points haul at this stage of a season, from 2022/23 (33), when they ended the campaign in ninth place.

Since Rosenior agreed to take over at Chelsea, the Blues have faced Fulham (he and his father Leroy’s former club) and Charlton (his dad’s old team) and Brentford (a club Rosenior senior managed), while this week’s FA Cup draw means a fourth-round return to former team Hull for our new coach.