Chelsea -Baas Enzo Maresca was in his team selection after a scoreless draw with Brentford on Sunday.
There was nothing to separate the two parties when Brentford held up to register their first household sheet of the season in the Premier League.
Yoane Wissa came close to the bees and drilled a powerful shot in the side in the beginning when Chelsea worked through a slow first half.
Maresca started Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Pedro Neto on the couch, although the trio led a much improved performance after the break, although it was not enough for Chelsea to claim the three points.
Palmer almost hit the glory shot with the last staircase of the game, but his curled effort adorned the top of the bar.
Speaking with BBC match of the day, Maresca explained his rotation policy.
“The reason why we are played on Thursday evening and not all of them were 100%,” he said.
“The idea was to start one way and finish another way. The plan almost worked.”
In the first half, the blues only managed four shots with an expected goals value of 0.49. In the second, due to the replacements of Maresca, those figures rose to 17 shots on an XG of 0.83.
Maresca was happy with the show, despite the fact that Chelsea was engaged in a tight race for the Champions League places.
“I think we generally played a good game. We played on Thursday evening, it was a difficult game, Sunny Day. They tried to kill the pace of the game. We did enough to win, we shot more than 20 times,” he added.
“The only thing we missed was the goal, but I am happy with the implementation.”
Chelsea registered 21 shots, five of them on goal, in another bad result on the road. The blues are now profitless in each of their last eight away Premier League matches (three draw, five losses) and at that time only score three goals in total.
Aimless. #CFC | #Breche pic.twitter.com/uaxvsxhqby
– Chelsea FC (@chelseafc) 6 April 2025
Speaking on his side of the road, Maresca added: “I think we started the season with winning many competitions and we were struggling at home. Now it's the other way.
“To get the top four or top five, fight for the title, you need the right balance. In general, we are in terms of numbers, we have been there since the beginning.
“To be honest, I did not prepare the game today with the thought that it was a long time ago that we win and we have to win.”
Chelsea will now shift the Focus from the Premier League to the Conference League, in which they record Legia Warsaw on Thursday in the first stage of their quarterfinals, with a home game against Ipswich Town awaiting them in anticipation of next weekend.
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