By Lucy Blitz

Brentford manager Thomas Frank hailed his side’s second half performance against Chelsea on Saturday after goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbuemo helping to secure three points in the West London derby.

Chelsea dominated their local rivals throughout the first half but Noni Madueke, Marc Cucurella and Raheem Sterling all spurned chances before the break.

Brentford made them pay through Pinnock’s header, before Mbeumo punished the hosts further in the 96th minute on assist from Neal Maupay.

Speaking to TNT Sports beyond the match, Frank explained his disappointment with the Bees’ ‘average performance’ across the first 45 minutes.

“[There’s] no doubt that Chelsea were better than us in the first half,” he said.

“[In the] second half, I think we really upped the level in the way we defended. [We showed] more coolness on the ball, more quality on the ball.”

“We kept Chelsea quiet, which is impressive given the offensive power they have.”

Brentford have now won four consecutive away London derbies for the first time in their league history.

What’s more, they are the first team to secure three wins from their first three visits to Stamford Bridge in the history of the Premier League.

“We have no fear. We respect every opponent, but when we play out here, we are tough to play against”, said the Danish manager.

Chelsea are yet to hit the ground running under new manager Mauricio Pochettino and have won only two home league matches since February.

Without a shot on target in the second half, the Blues manager told Sky Sports that his side must look in the mirror.

“We need to blame ourselves because we were not nasty or clinical,” he said.

“In the first half, we should score, and we didn’t score. We dominated, created chances. “We didn’t have the calm to say, ‘keep going because we are going to score’”.

“It’s disappointing because we were the better team.”

This is the third time in the last four league fixtures at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea have come up short, and now record their eighth Premier League loss at home across 2023.

The Blues host Blackburn in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, before travelling to North London for another derby against Spurs in a week’s time.

Buoyant Brentford return to the GTECH Community Stadium this weekend to face West Ham, with only one point separates the two capital teams as they head into match week 11.