Chelsea 0-2 Brentford
Chelsea lost the fifth game under interim manager Frank Lampard on Wednesday evening. Brentford made for a painful evening at Stamford Bridge.
There seems to be nothing positive going on for Chelsea. The Blues have not won since March 11, but Lampard again chose to field only one attacker in Raheem Sterling. From the bench, men like João Félix, Noni Madueke and Hakim Ziyech saw that the chances in the first half were few. And at an unfortunate moment just before half-time, a strike by Mathias Zanka Jørgensen disappeared behind goalkeeper Kepa via César Azpilicueta.
To prevent his fifth defeat as interim manager, Lampard brought in two attackers immediately after the break with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mykhailo Mudryk. Chelsea put the pressure on and was also close to the equalizer via an Aubameyang header, but Brentford held on and secured the victory twelve minutes from time in the counter-punch through substitute Bryan Mbeumo. And so Chelsea continues to wander under Lampard’s management.
The Brentford players regained their taste for victory after beating Chelsea 0-2 in the away leg. It was Brentford’s first game win after six games in a row without a win in the Premier League.
Nottingham Forest 3-1 Brighton
At the bottom of the Premier League, Nottingham Forest did good business. Three days after missing out on the FA Cup final, Brighton & Hove Albion went down at City Ground. It was a welcome result for the home side, who had not won in the Premier League since February 5. Although it initially seemed to go wrong when Brennan Johnson missed a penalty. And Facundo Buonanotte then opened the score for Brighton just before half-time.
However, Forest leveled the score before the break when a cross from Renan Lodi was deflected by Pascal Gross in such a way that Jason Steele was beaten. Halfway through the second half, Danilo took the lead with a nice goal and in extra time Morgan Gibbs-White made no mistake when the ball hit the spot again. Brighton seemed to make it exciting in the eleventh minute of extra time, but Deniz Undav’s connection goal was rejected.
The result was a huge relief for Nottingham Forest. As the team had suffered four successive Premier League defeats before Wednesday’s home game.
