An under-fire Chelsea side will hope to make it count in the midweek action in the EFL Cup where they take on Brentford in the last-eight clash.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have been held to two successive draws in Premier League football with Sunday’s nil-nil result away at Wolves meaning Chelsea trail the league leaders Manchester City by six points.
A West London derby is on the cards for the Blues next with the league’s new boys Brentford welcoming a depleted Chelsea outfit who are facing a major COVID-19 crisis within their ranks.
Brentford have been superb in the cup competition this season and are the leading scorers with 12 goals which would up the pressure on Tuchel to lead his players to a much-needed win away from home turf.
WHEN AND WHERE?
Matchday minus one! 💪 pic.twitter.com/H5z2OretX9
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 21, 2021
Date – 22 December 2021
Time – 7:45 PM GMT
Venue – Brentford Community Stadium
TEAM NEWS
Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ben Chilwell and Lewis Baker are all concerns on the coronavirus front for the visitors.
Following the game against Wolves over the weekend, Tuchel admitted injury issues to both Trevoh Chalobah and Hakim Ziyech will be subject to further assessment.
Kai Havertz was deemed to be negative for COVID-19 which could put the Germany international right in the mix to lead the line for the Blues in the forthcoming cup tie.
MATCH PREDICTION
Brentford will be confident heading into Wednesday’s derby clash but we predict Thomas Tuchel’s men to secure the win through the narrowest of margins.
Brentford 1-2 Chelsea
