Jaidon Anthony, Igor Thiago and Fabio Carvalho scored Brentford picked up their first Premier League win since the opening weekend on an emphatic night Chelsea.
Former Burnley winger Anthony nodded home in the 61st minute and Thiago scored his first League goal of the season seven minutes from time to sink a Chelsea side that offered little going forward.
Substitute Fabio Carvalho added a third in injury time to leave Xabi Alonso a beleaguered figure on the Chelsea bench.
Alonso’s side were hoping to bounce back from defeat at Arsenal and a disappointing draw at home to Hull, but they rarely threatened Caoimhin Kelleher in the Brentford goal.
Pedro Neto had a nine-minute shot by Kelleher and Morgan Rogers saw an unmarked shot blocked by Bees defender Jannik Schuster five minutes before the break in Chelsea’s only moments of hope in the first half.
And Brentford were slightly better in the first 45 minutes. It took almost 37 minutes for Keith Andrews’ side to get a shot on target and when they did, Yehor Yarmoliuk’s effort resulted in a routine save from Emiliano Martinez.
Anthony finally breaks the deadlock to stun Chelsea
The second half threatened to follow a similar pattern, although there were glimpses of Brentford taking the upper hand – Anthony headed onto the crossbar despite the offside flag being up.
However, he provided the advanced timing shortly after the scheduled time. Mikkel Damsgaard’s left-wing corner was headed away by Jannick Schuster and Anthony slotted home from two yards out to score his first Brentford goal.
Chelsea had a good spell of possession after falling behind but did little with Joao Pedro absent through injury. Danny Welbeck was superbly organized by the Brentford defence, while Rogers was largely anonymous. Cole Palmer was Chelsea’s best player, but even he struggled to make much of an impact.
Argentina international Valentin Barco, who was booed all night for his role in ending England in the World Cup semi-final, was rightly awarded a penalty before Brentford hit back with a second.
Chelsea collapse late
Kevin Schade was played in and although his shot was saved by Martinez, the ball fell to Thiago to slot home.
The Brazil international, who was left out of Carlo Ancelotti’s latest squad, celebrated in style, earning himself a yellow card for ripping his shirt.
Maxence Lacroix should have halved the arrears but headed in stoppage time and Carvalho showed him how to finish Schade’s deflected cross at the far post to fire high into the net.
The win lifted Brentford into third place of the rest of the weekend’s matches.