Brentford 2 Chelsea 2: Late Carvalho equaliser secures point for Bees in west London derby | OneFootball

A late equaliser from Fábio Carvalho secured a point for Brentford in a 2-2 draw against Chelsea at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday night.

The Bees took the lead through Kevin Schade in the first half, before Cole Palmer and Moisés Caicedo netted after half-time. But it was the Bees who had the final word in the west London derby, after Carvalho's 93rd-minute goal.

Mathias Jensen made his first Premier League start since the opening day of the season, with the Danish midfielder replacing his countryman Mikkel Damsgaard, who missed the west London derby through illness.

Andrews made one further change from the 2-1 defeat against Sunderland at Stadium of Light, with Ethan Pinnock introduced in the starting XI in place of Dango Ouattara. Vitaly Janelt, who hasn't featured since April due to an issue in his heel, was named amongst the substitutes alongside Deadline Day signing Reiss Nelson.

The Bees' first chance of the game came inside the first five minutes, when a long ball from Keane Lewis-Potter was plucked out of the air fantastically by Igor Thiago.

The striker cushioned it into the path of Schade, who tried to find some room to shoot but couldn't, and his shot was blocked behind for a corner by Tosin Adarabioyo. Schade got onto the end of the resulting set-piece but headed wide.

And it was the German forward who opened the scoring at the Gtech. After a good Michael Kayode clearance at one end, Jordan Henderson picked up the ball in midfield and sent an exquisite pass over the top to Schade, who squared up Tosin, before finishing past Robert Sánchez.

Brentford started the second half brightly, but the first chance of the period fell to the visitors. Half-time substitute Tyrique George beat the offside trap after a pass from Enzo Fernández but, from a tight angle, Caoimhín Kelleher did well to tip his effort around the post.

The introduction of Palmer made the difference for Chelsea on the hour mark, as the attacking midfielder, who had missed the Blues' last two games through injury, picked up a João Pedro header unmarked inside the six-yard box and side-footed home.

The hosts were so close to an immediate response. Jensen found Schade inside the box and, with his back to goal, the German span and fired towards the far post, which forced Sánchez to scramble and tip it around his right post.

Pinnock, on his first league start of the season, made a crucial block to keep the scores level. A long ball over the top played Pedro Neto into some space, but the centre-back kept up with him and lunged across to keep the shot out.

Kelleher was the next to come to the rescue for the Bees, when Neto found himself free again. The winger raced into the final third and played the ball across to Palmer, but the Bees keeper got down remarkably well to stop the Chelsea man from bagging his brace.

Caicedo found Chelsea's second with five minutes to play. Debutant Alejandro Garnacho played the ball across the box, but it was only half-cleared to the goalscorer, who fired from the edge of the area into the back of the net.

Ouattara came close to an equaliser soon after, when he jinked inside and outside, before his deflected cross almost caught out Sánchez, who, once again, kept the ball out of the Chelsea net.

But Brentford's second was eventually found in stoppage-time, when substitute Carvalho latched onto a Kristoffer Ajer flick-on from a long throw, tucking in from close range to secure a point for Andrews' side.

Brentford: Kelleher; Kayode (Hickey 83), van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock (Ajer 83), Lewis-Potter (Carvalho 90); Henderson, Yarmoliuk, Jensen (Ouattara 73); Schade, Thiago (Henry 73)

Subs not used: Valdimarsson, Onyeka, Janelt, Nelson

Chelsea: Sánchez; Fofana (James HT), Chalobah, Tosin, Hato (Cucurella HT); Caicedo, Fernández; Neto, Buonanotte (George HT), Gittens (Palmer 56); Pedro (Garnacho 79)

Subs not used: Jörgensen, Santos, Gusto, Acheampong

Andrews on Bees' resilience

Keith Andrews said that Brentford's performance in their 2-2 draw against Chelsea summed up what his side is about.

“It was a relaxing morning until I found out Mikkel was ill overnight and that changed a little bit,” said Andrews.

“The game was us, it was the resilience that doesn’t surprise me.

“We were the better side in the first half, we caused no end of trouble with the way we set up and disjointed them, and brought them into areas they didn’t want to be.

“There was always going to be a reaction in the second half, they made substitutions and that changes the momentum in the game.

“They got the goals and then the way we reacted with the substitutions coming on and how we approached it and kept going; I thought we were relentless in how we kept going in the pursuit of the equaliser.”

Carvalho: That's what football is about

Fábio Carvalho talked through his stoppage-time equaliser in the west London derby on Saturday.

He explained: "I knew that I wasn't going to win the first header but I thought that, if I snuck around, I might get my chance - and I did!

"We've been working on it on the training pitch and it paid off today."

He added: "You've got to smell where the ball's going to land. It was similar to the Bournemouth one, where Kris Ajer knocked it down; I know there's a high chance that, if he goes up, he'll win the header.

"I didn't get a chance to celebrate because Sepp [van den Berg] jumped on me! But that's what football is about and we more than deserved it."