It's just 7 miles to Brentford Stadium from Stamford Bridge, they being our West London brethren like Fulham & QPR. In fact, any combination of the 4 teams constitutes a West London Derby!
Brentford spent 116 years at Griffin Park, moving out in 2020 to the 17,500 seater Gtech Community Stadium in 2020. The next year the Bees finally got promoted to the Premier League, after 9 play-off losses which is a record. They did this under Thomas Frank, who had joined as Assistant to Dean Smith in 2016 and took over from Smith in 2018.
Brentford have not won a trophy in their history, the closest they have come is the semi finals of the Carabao Cup in 2020-21 when they were a Championship side. They would go on to lose to Spurs, where Frank would move at the start of this season.
Key Statistics
Premier League Record (W2 - D3 - L3)
Overall Points per Game (1st, 1.13)
Overall Goals per Game (1st, 0.75)
PPG at Stamford Bridge (1st, 2.25)
Biggest Win at Stamford Bridge (1-4, 2nd)
Our record versus Brentford makes for some dreadful reading. The sample size is less, we have only faced the Bees 8 times in the Premier League (excluding this season's 2-2 Draw), but we only have 2 wins to show in that period.
The first was away at the Gtech Community Stadium in our first Premier League meeting. Brentford were much the better side, but a second half goal from Ben Chilwell was all that was needed as Eduoard Mendy produced one of his finest performances in a Chelsea kit. In the reverse fixture that year, 48 minutes in Antonio Rudiger finally found the back of the net from Distance and his celebration would have been much more memorable were it not for 3 Brentford goals in the next 10 minutes. The Bees would score another and go home with a 4-1 win at the Bridge.
We beat Brentford 2-1 in the reverse fixture this season. 🔵🐝 pic.twitter.com/vIV6yjyMYo
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 5, 2025
The second win was at home last year. After the 4-1 drubbing, Brentford would win 2-0 at the Bridge in successive seasons, having scored in every visit. Bryan Mbeumo himself had scored in his last 3 visits to the Bridge, scoring the final goal in both 2-0 wins and the consolation in the 2-1 defeat last year, where Nicolas Jackson scored 2 fine goals. Incredible to know that in their first 3 seasons as a Premier League side, Brentford won away at Chelsea.
They Played for Both
There aren't many players who have played for both sides. In fact, there is No player to have played for both teams in the Premier League. I would expect this to change in the near future as they are our neighbours and players might prefer to stay in London if they have settled (looking at you Raheem).
Steve Sidwell was a teenager at Arsenal when he spent a season on loan at Brentford in 2001. He would spend an uneventful half season at Chelsea in 2007 after impressing at Reading. John Swift spent 7 years in the Chelsea Academy, going on loan to Brentford in 2015-16 before signing for ... Reading again!
But pride of place must go to Josh McEachran. Chelsea fans waxed lyrical about the teenage midfielder at the turn of the decade with Carlo Ancelotti trusting him at the base of his midfield diamond. McEachran was Chelsea's Young Player of the Year in 2011, but future coaches lost faith in the boy and he would join Brentford for a decent fee in 2015. Josh would make 90 appearances for the Bees, scoring his only first (and only) professional goal for them in 2018. He just scored his second ever goal for Bristol Rovers this month.
Next up, our friends Brighton and Hove Albion! Now that is a team we have shared players with!
