Premier League: Rosenior Takes His League Bow at the Bridge

Chelsea vs Brentford

Chelsea can leapfrog Brentford when the two West London sides meet at Stamford Bridge on Saturday…and that would be the perfect start for new Blues boss Liam Rosenior.   

Yep…you heard that right. The Blues, after 21 games are sitting modestly in eighth place in the Premier League table, two points and three places behind Keith Andrews’ Brentford. The Bees have made a remarkable climb up the table after starting the campaign as relegation candidates, while the Blues have been dogged by inconsistency, leading to the departure of former head coach Enzo Maresca.

With 17 games to play, the Premier League 2026 betting odds say Chelsea will finish fifth, while Brentford will hang on to a mid-table place, and a positive result for the hosts will see them change places on Saturday afternoon.  

The Blues have a Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Arsenal on Wednesday, so Rosenior has a big first week ahead but he passed his first test, leading his new team to an FA Cup win away to Charlton while Brentford also made the fourth round of the cup, winning away to Sheffield Wednesday.   

 

Talking Points

Don’t expect a revolution from Chelsea’s new man

Rosenior may have been able to take charge of Chelsea for their Premier League match away to Fulham last week, but he sat out that West End Boys meeting, waiting instead to take the reins for the FA Cup visit to Charlton. As it turned out he was right to watch at Craven Cottage as Chelsea lost 2-1 with Marc Cucurella picking up a first half red card, the seventh Blues player to be sent off this season. 

The fiery Spaniard missed out on the 5-1 win over the Addicks and his replacement Jorrel Hato opened the scoring. Rosenior rested as many first teamers as he could and the replacements did well, though Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez both scored after climbing off the bench. Hato played as an inverted left back, as Cucurella does, in a 4-2-3-1 formation and any changes Rosenior makes will likely be incremental. After all, this is a team which won two trophies last term and has been together for enough time to gel.

What Rosenior brings is renewed focus, and the former Hull City and Strasbourg boss will have his best players ready to impress on Saturday.           

 

Andrews has the Bees buzzing

A 3-0 win over Sunderland last week took Brentford up to fifth place in the league table and made it 13 points from the last five league games, with only league leaders Arsenal matching that tally. The Bees Premier League 2026 results under Andrews have been little short of remarkable and the genial Irishman deserves a stack of credit, after he took over a club which had lost its beloved manager Thomas Frank, and best strikers in Bryan Mbeumo and Yoanne Wissa, not to mention highly rated goalkeeper Mark Flekken.

Andrews brought in keeper Caomhin Kelleher from Liverpool and forward Dango Ouattara in a club record fee of £42.5m from Bournemouth, but other than that he has opted for continuity and has tweaked gently from Frank’s successful formula, with a pragmatic use of the long ball and the long throw. But the biggest factor in Brentford’s success has been the form of Brazilian striker Igor Thiago who has plundered 16 goals, to climb to second place in the race for the Golden Boot, four goals behind Erling Haaland.

Thiago has become the highest Brazilian scorer in a single Premier League season, with 17 games still to play and the 24 year old is full of confidence, scoring five in his last two league appearances. Like Rosenior, Andrews rested his big guns in the cup match and Thiago and co will be ready to go again at the Bridge.          

 

History

With five wins to three Chelsea have edged the head to heads with Brentford, while there have been five draws, and at Stamford Bridge it stands at three wins each.

The last time they met the two teams played out a 2-2 draw at the Gtech Community Stadium while last season, Chelsea won this fixture at Stamford Bridge 2-1.

With five wins and a draw from the last six games the Bees have been in great form while Chelsea have won one, drawn three and lost two.

 

Betting Tip

With Brentford at SBOTOP odds of 4.50 and the Draw at 3.80 the markets have a lot of faith in Rosenior winning his first home league game…and so do I.

The Bees have a serious sting and, in Thiago, one of the hottest strikers in world football, so for a correct score I’d go for a 2-1 Chelsea win at odds of 7.95. 

   

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