Chelsea 2 Brentford 0: Pedro and Palmer score as Bees defeated at Stamford Bridge | OneFootball

Goals either side of half-time from João Pedro and Cole Palmer saw Chelsea beat Brentford 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

The Bees had chances and territory throughout large portions of the game but couldn't capitalise, as Pedro's powerful strike and Palmer's penalty secured three points in Liam Rosenior's first league game as Blues boss.

Mikkel Damsgaard was named in the starting XI by Keith Andrews, replacing Keane Lewis-Potter, with new signing Kaye Furo and the returning Dango Ouattara on the bench for the Bees.

Palmer's wild effort over the crossbar was the only real effort inside the first 15 minutes before the Bees, somehow, weren't ahead shortly after.

Kevin Schade was fed by Igor Thiago and, after bursting into the penalty area, he chopped the ball into a central area just outside the six-yard box.

The forward opted to pass the ball across the box rather than shoot, which was deflected goalwards by Tosin Adarabioyo, before Robert Sánchez superbly kept out what would have been an own goal.

However, it was Chelsea who took the lead on 26 minutes. A Michael Kayode clearance was deflected back to Pedro, who lashed the ball past Caoimhín Kelleher and into the back of the net. The goal was initially called offside, before VAR corrected the decision.

Andrews' side then had their best chance of the game. Damsgaard flicked the ball to his compatriot Mathias Jensen. The Dane sliced a volley towards goal from the corner of the six-yard box, but it clipped the outside of the post and went wide.

It should have been 2-0 to the hosts just before half-time. Pedro Neto made a run down the right and crossed perfectly into Alejandro Garnacho at the back post who, from point-blank range, turned the ball wide of the Brentford goal.

In stoppage-time, a quick break from the Bees, which came from a neat Jensen pass into Thiago, almost resulted in an equaliser. The Brazilian striker squared the ball to Schade, who was bundled to the ground, before Yehor Yarmoliuk's effort was deflected over the bar.

It was Schade again who had a golden opportunity to find a leveller. A loose touch from Jensen was then immediately won back by the midfielder, who then slid a pinpoint pass through to his team-mate. The left-winger was one-on-one with Sánchez, but the foot of the keeper turned it around the post.

The Bees had all the momentum and were relentlessly pushing for an equaliser, with Thiago close to scoring his 17th goal of the season. A corner was half-cleared but crossed back towards the striker in the box, and his thumping header flew just past the Chelsea goal.

But, much like in the first half, the visitors couldn't capitalise on that pressure and conceded to the Blues. A loose touch by Kelleher was pounced on by Liam Delap, who skipped past the Brentford keeper and was brought down by the Republic of Ireland international inside the area.

Palmer stepped up and converted the penalty to double Chelsea's lead.

Romelle Donovan came on for his Premier League debut as Brentford continued to test the hosts, with Jensen and Aaron Hickey going close from long-range efforts, but they couldn't find a goal in a west London derby defeat.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; James, Chalobah, Tosin (Fofana 58), Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernández; Pedro Neto, Palmer, Garnacho (Santos 57); João Pedro (Delap 74)

Subs: Jörgensen, Hato, Acheampong, Badiashile, George, Guiu

Brentford (4-3-3): Kelleher; Kayode, Ajer, Collins, Henry (Hickey 82); Janelt, Yarmoliuk (Donovan 90+4), Jensen; Damsgaard (Ouattara 77), Thiago, Schade (Lewis-Potter 82)

Subs: Valdimarsson, Pinnock, van den Berg, Nelson, Furo

Attendance: 39,704

Andrews 'proud' of Brentford performance despite loss

Brentford head coach Keith Andrews gave his thoughts on the Bees' 2-0 defeat to Chelsea.

"I'm really disappointed with the result, but I'm really happy with the performance," he said.

"We came here today and played with such courage and conviction in every aspect of the game.

"We were really aggressive without the ball, determined, with a real appetite to win the ball back. We had calmness when we defended low, against top individuals.

"With the ball, we caused them a lot of problems.

"I'm really proud of the performance."

Collins: We were the better team

Brentford defender Nathan Collins was frustrated by Saturday's loss and praised his team-mates' performance at Stamford Bridge.

"There is a lot of frustration," said the Bees captain. "I thought that we were the better team and that we dominated the game. We created a lot of chances.

"The frustrating - but also positive - thing is that their goals came from our mistakes. We gave them nothing, defended well, and attacked really well, too.

"We controlled the game, so it's really frustrating."