Enzo Maresca feels an improved second-half performance from his Chelsea team at Brentford was enough to deserve victory in Saturday’s west London derby, but we will learn from the late blow which denied us all three points.
The advantage switched from side to side throughout this Premier League fixture. First Brentford took the lead against the run of play, before the introduction of several Chelsea players from the bench helped us produce a much-improved performance in the second half.
That saw us fight back and take the lead ourselves with around five minutes of the 90 remaining, thanks to a pair of excellent goals scored by Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo. However, it was not to be, as the home side managed to equalise in the third minute of added time, leaving us to share the points at the final whistle.
'For sure we were much better in the second half,' reflected Maresca. 'For different reasons we struggled in the first half. In the second half we scored twice, we could have scored more. Unfortunately we lost two points in the last three minutes.
'I think we did enough to win the game. In the second half we scored twice, we could have scored two or three more goals. There was the Cole chance, the Pedro [Neto] chance. So I think we did enough. Unfortunately we lost two points just in the last three minutes.'
The Brentford equaliser arrived from a long throw into our box, a constant threat this Bees side carries, and one we dealt with well until that last-gasp goal.
'The problem is they have [Michael] Kayode, they have [Mathias] Jensen, they have [Ethan] Pinnock, they have [Kevin] Schade. The thing is at the end three of those players were already out, it was just Schade, and unfortunately we just conceded in the last three minutes.
'During the game I think we tried to deal with that knowing they are so dangerous because they can arrive in the six-yard box very easily.'
Regardless of how the late equaliser was scored, Maresca felt we could have done more to prevent that situation arising, pointing to game management as an area where his team can learn and improve from having the victory snatched away so late.
'For sure in the moment that we scored the second goal we have to manage better,' concluded the Chelsea head coach.
'We scored in the 86th minute and in that moment you need to give passes, you need to slow down, you need to send the game to sleep a little bit. It’s something that we didn’t do and it’s something that we need to improve on and we need to learn.'