Chelsea vs. Brentford, Premier League: Preview, team news, how to watch

There’s a massive game in this midweek round of the Premier League, kicking off at 8pm local time tonight, between league-leaders Arsenal and title-favorites Manchester City.

City have two games in-hand against the Gunners, whom they trail by five points. The maths favors Guardiola’s men, as do form and momentum. Arsenal have dropped six points in their last three games and the trophy’s slipping out of their hands faster than a Steven Gerrard joke about Oleksandr Zinchenko.

But in case a title-deciding six-pointer is not your flavor, you can torture yourself with a match between two of the least in-form teams in the league, neither of whom have anything to fight for the rest of the way, mired deeply in the mediocrity of midtable.

Date / Time: Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 19.45 BST; 2:45pm EDT; 12:15am IST (next day)
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Andy Madley (on pitch); John Brooks (VAR)
Forecast: Cloudy and cool

On TV: BT Sport 3 (UK); none (USA); Star Sports HD2 (India); none (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: BT Sport Live (UK); Peacock (USA); Hotstar (India); SuperSport GoTV (NGA)

Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

Chelsea team news: That’s now seven straight without a win (five of those at home!), with four defeats on the bounce in all competitions. We’ve scored just one goal in our last six games.

Can it get any worse? Surely not. But then again, surely yes. Of our seven remaining games, all in the league, five are against teams in the top half of the table, including one against each of the current top four.

Reece James and Mason Mount are set to be spared all this mileage and have been shut down for the season. Kai Havertz is dealing with a knee problem, but is apparently expected to be back yet. Kalidou Koulibaly’s nursing a hamstring while Armando Broja’s hoping to get a few minutes as he continues to make progress in his ACL rehab.

Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Brentford team news: Brentford are doing just a smidge better than us at the moment riding a six-match winless streak, though they did draw 1-1 against rampant Aston Villa last weekend. And that was not even their only goal during this bad run of form (they have six total in those six games). Ivan Toney has the last two and he continues to be the best goalscorer in the league not named Erling Haaland or Harry Kane.

Despite this poor run, the Bees are still on course to finish above where they were last season, which was already their highest placement since World War II.

Christian Norgaard, Pontus Jansson, and Keane Lewis-Potter are out for the rest of the season. Kristoffer Ajer and Thomas Strakosha are also out, but should be back sooner than that.

Previously: We drew 0-0 earlier this season, while last season, this fixture was one of the low-points of the season (4-1 to them at the Bridge) despite Antonio Rüdiger’s ridiculous long bomb, which clearly broke the rules of the universe and we’ve been getting punished for it ever since.