Brentford 0-0 Chelsea
GTECH COMMUNITY STADIUM — Ivan Toney for England: the audition continues. It might be that just staying fit is enough to book his ticket to Qatar. However, having spent a week in the England camp without the reward of a cap, it would be better were Toney to take providence out of it via the goals column.
Having cleaved the Brighton defences twice last Friday, Toney was invited to repeat the dose against an English super club, if only not to be deafened by the argument “it’s alright doing it against Brighton”.
Toney is sufficiently secure to prance around with socks around his ankles like he owns the Gtech Community Stadium, which in the eyes of all Bees he does, of course. And this might be the problem. Were he to narrow his focus, bring a new discipline to his game, he may be more persuasive. That said, it is not the Brentford coach’s job to solve England’s problems. And you can see why Thomas Frank loves him.
Toney might have had the job done twice during Brentford’s electric start. Perhaps the first opportunity came too early, taking him by surprise. A heavy touch as he ran on to a pass took the ball away from goal and the chance to round Kepa Arrizabalaga had gone.
He was closer with the second opening, climbing high above the Chelsea defence to force a fine save from the keeper. The cross from Mads Roerslev was a peach, and Toney made good use of it. Toney is clearly a talent but if he is going to break into the England squad it will be as a goal scorer not provider. England captain Harry Kane is the exemplar of the role Toney seeks to perfect. But Kane has the goals to justify it.
Chelsea eventually imposed their shape and quality on the evening without overly working David Raya in the Brentford goal. Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mateo Kovacic, on for the injured Conor Gallagher, moved the ball around with plenty of purpose and zip. Brentford countered with enthusiasm and quick counters. Toney had an improvised header saved and raised pulse rates with an attempted dribble on the edge of the box. Again it was off-the-cuff stuff that ran out of room against stout defending.
Not to labour the point, had Toney been on the end of Roerslev’s cross in the opening minutes of the second period, that is to say at centre-forward, instead of Bryan Mbeumo the game may have changed complexion. Fluidity has its limitations. Since Toney could not be in two places at once we shall never know.
Graham Potter surprised with a triple change on the hour that did not involve Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He withdrew the blunt Armando Broja for Carney Chukwuemeka, and added Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic on the wings. Brentford’s high-energy output was beginning to leak into the night. Potter sensed it yet thought better of plugging in Aubameyang.
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With ten minutes remaining Potter did indeed reach for Aubameyang at the expense of Kai Havertz. The substitutions injected fresh urgency not to mention quality, which made the closing stages a tense affair for the home supporters. Brentford fell into a defensive shape and left Toney to scavenge alone.
The night would cough up two more chances for Toney to make his mark. The first saw him wriggle around the last defender but shoot weakly. The second required him to sprint in vain down the left. The ball that would have cracked open the Chelsea defence went right instead. It should, of course, have gone to Toney, but got caught in the heels of Josh Dasilva. Chelsea recovered possession to re-instate the siege.
It was in that moment of disappointment that the heart went out to Toney, another lung-busting effort in the service of the team coming to nothing. The lad was spent when the whistle blew, his hands on his knees before dropping onto his hind quarters. Brentford were happier with the result. Perhaps the next step is to harness better the obvious potential in Toney. In other words achieve more by doing less.
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