Chelsea: Marc Cucurella guaranteed for leading role as Blues hold nerve in Premier League title race | OneFootball

The Chelsea full-back had an extraordinarily eventful evening against Brentford

Wherever Chelsea’s season goes from here - and after five straight Premier League victories that have closed the gap to to Liverpool just two points, all bets really are off - you can guarantee that Marc Cucurella will play a leading part.

A week on from his twin errors in a Tottenham slip-‘n’-slide, Cucurella set the Blues on their way to west London derby victory over Brentford with a vital header, then put a small downer on the 2-1 triumph with a needless red card once the final whistle had blown.

A more prolific magnet-cum-catalyst for incident it is hard to recall. In the last twelve days alone, Cucurella has now scored a key goal in the title race, been sent off for two yellow cards despite going into the 95th-minute unbooked, played a quarter of a match on rollerblades, tried to alienate his kit sponsor and been the victim of a hair-pulling assault.

Stoppage-time here, a tense period of seven minutes after Bryan Mbeumo had given the Bees a lifeline, was a jamboree in itself. Cucurella made two vital clearances inside his own penalty as Chelsea’s petulance repeatedly handed Brentford the free-kick opportunities on which they thrive, then negated another by tempting a foul from the gullible Sepp Van Den Berg. He also lunged in dangerously in midfield to earn a first booking, then earned a second for an inevitably central role in some handbags at the whistle under referee Peter Bankes’s nose.

Brentford’s defenders, then, will probably reflect negatively on having let the least inconspicuous man in the Premier League steal in at the back post for the home side’s opening goal, but Cucurella’s desire to meet Noni Madueke’s cross was superb, and his header when getting there good enough to beat Mark Flekken, too.

Marc Cucurella celebrates breaking the deadlock against Brentford.

AFP via Getty Images

Maresca celebrated wildly, sensing that the strike, two minutes from the interval, was outsized in its importance.

Perhaps for the first time this season, there was real pressure on Chelsea here. Playing last on the weekend, in a slot designed to let their players rest after a Kazakhstani journey most hadn’t been on, the Blues had seen Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City (if they still matter) all drop points.

This looked a home banker, against a Brentford team who had claimed just one of their 23 points this season away. Except there was that strange record to contend with, Thomas Frank’s side having won on all three of their visits to Stamford Bridge since first earning promotion to the Premier League. By quirk of their separation until that point, you had to go back to 1946 for Chelsea’s last home league derby win.

There were hatfuls of chances spurned either side of that Cucurella opener, including by Nicolas Jackson, who missed an open goal in what threatened to be a wasteful, throwback performance. Jackson, though, again proved his progress by spearing what looked a clinching second, until Mbeumo’s slick finish made for a nervy end.

Missing Joao Felix, Pedro Neto, Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Mykhailo Mudryk, Romeo Lavia and Benoit Badiashile, Maresca made only one change all game, his team hanging on in a manner that suddenly made his squad look bizarrely thin.

That will not be helped now by Cucurella’s upcoming suspension, but a ban ought to at least keep him out of the headlines for a week. Heaven knows not much else can.