Mauricio Pochettino lamented that Chelsea were “not nasty enough” in attack as Brentford won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to send his team to a third home Premier League defeat of the season. Victory for the visitors, earned with second-half goals from Ethan Pinnock and Bryan Mbeumo, maintained their 100 per cent record on this ground since being promoted to the top flight in 2021 and ended Chelsea’s run of three league games unbeaten. The hosts failed to take advantage of a first half that they largely dominated, going close through Noni Madueke who struck the crossbar on his first start of the season. Marc Cucurella should have made more of the chance when Cole Palmer found him unmarked inside the box with a finely weighted ball, the defender lacking the power and precision needed to trouble goalkeeper Mark Flekken. From there, familiar frailties crept into Chelsea’s play and it was little surprise when they fell behind on 58 minutes, Pinnock storming past the ineffectual Axel Disasi to get on the end of Mbeumo’s cross and power his header inside Robert Sanchez’s near post. The goalkeeper was left embarrassed in added time when he was caught out going up for a corner and left the goal empty for Mbeumo to tap home Brentford’s second. Chelsea’s woeful home form has seen them win only once at Stamford Bridge in the league since March, a run that now stands at 13 matches going back to March. And after failing to score here for the 10th time in all competitions in 2023, Pochettino was left to rue the ease with which the visitors coped with his side’s attacking threat. “It’s a clear analysis,” he said. “After the first half we should score and we didn’t. When you dominate and create chances, and you don’t concede chances and the opponent didn’t cross the halfway line, we should score. If you don’t score, you need to blame ourselves. We were not nasty or clinical in front of the goal. “Sometimes you need some luck to score. It would change the game in the second half. But I think we gave them belief because we didn’t score. The second half, we can’t concede the kind of goal that we conceded and that’s why we lost the game. “(We have had) bad luck. (Christopher) Nkunku proved he can score in the big leagues and was injured in the last pre-season game. This type of thing didn’t help. We need to recover (Armando) Broja. Nicolas Jackson is affected for different reasons, he’s young and needs time to adapt. That’s obvious.” The first half ended with the manager remonstrating with a supporter near the dugout who expressed dissatisfaction with Jackson’s lack of involvement. The striker had come to the touchline to receive instruction but was criticised from the stands for his performance, prompting Pochettino to come to his defence. “It was a moment where we all felt frustrated,” he said. “After 40 minutes we’d played really well and created chances, but didn’t score. In that moment the energy was down in the stadium. “(Jackson) came to me and we were talking about positions on the pitch and I gave some direction to him. One fan said ‘wake up’. I said to stop talking in this way, support the players, we need support. It was very respectful.” Brentford boss Thomas Frank reflected on a game in which his players weathered first-half pressure and grabbed their chances when they arrived. “I think our first half wasn’t that good,” he said. “Chelsea were good first half, you see their exciting potential. If I was a Chelsea fan I’d be positive about them. It’s a bad result (for them), but I’m convinced it will come. “I said at half time we need to believe, I didn’t see that enough in the first half. We didn’t give away big chances away, but we gave too much away. “The first goal always changes the dynamic of a game. The way we defended was fantastic.” Read More Matty Ashton at the double as England seal series win over Tonga Everton financial reports just another thing to deal with – Sean Dyche Steve Borthwick’s plans for England’s Six Nations campaign well under way England ‘feeling the heat’ of World Cup implosion – Marcus Trescothick Erik ten Hag admits Man Utd ‘have a way to go’ as they prepare for derby day Son Heung-min hails Guglielmo Vicario for ‘unbelievable saves’ in win at Palace

Each time Lionel Messi lined up for a free-kick in his first away game for Inter Miami, thousands of fans packed into a stadium in the searing Texas heat stood and held up their cell phones, ready to record. They all successfully captured footage of history repeating itself. Messi scored another mesmerising free-kick in his third consecutive two-goal game, drawing Inter Miami level before they snatched victory over FC Dallas on penalties to move into the Leagues Cup quarter-final. Messi’s goal in the 85th minute to square things at 4-4 was reminiscent of the game-winner from his Inter Miami debut, both free-kicks from just outside the area in the waning moments, both sneaking past the goalkeeper into the upper corner of the net. This time, the left-footed superstar was stationed to the right of the goal and beat FC Dallas’ Maarten Paes at his near post in the same manner he did from out on the left in a 2-1 win over Mexican club Cruz Azul. “I think there’s not much to say. I think everyone can see,” FC Dallas coach Nico Estevez said. “It’s obvious that for him a free-kick around there is like a penalty for another player. You have to pray that the ball goes out of bounds or he falls in the run-up to kick the ball.” The victory in the round of 16 sent Inter Miami into the Leagues Cup quarter-finals against the winner of Monday night’s contest between Charlotte FC and Houston. The second of Messi’s three consecutive two-goal games came in the first Leagues Cup elimination game, a 3-1 Miami victory over Orlando City that was delayed by an hour and a half because of a torrential rainstorm in Florida. The fifth match in Texas of Messi’s illustrious career had a kick-off temperature of 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) on the 14th consecutive day of triple-digit heat in the Dallas area and, because of the high temperatures, teams took a heat break midway through each half. Messi’s first goal outside of Florida for his new U.S. club was another left-footed strike from outside the penalty area in the sixth minute, after a pass from former FC Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba. It was initially disallowed for offside, although this was overturned following a VAR review. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and World Cup winner for Argentina has scored seven goals in four matches for Inter Miami — all in the Leagues Cup — with every game ending in victory after Inter went winless in nine consecutive MLS matches before the 36-year-old arrived. “We are very glad to be moving on and these types of games help us to continue to develop as a team and fix our mistakes,” Miami coach Gerardo Martino said through an interpreter. “We still have a long way to go to be at the level we want but in the end, I am glad that we obtained the victory.” Come the shootout, Messi converted the first penalty with a leisurely run-up before blasting his effort into the right corner. The difference was Paxton Pomykal firing over the crossbar with FC Dallas’s second spot-kick before Benjamin Cremaschi, who had also scored in the 65th minute, scored the winning penalty as Miami triumphed 5-3 in the shootout. Dallas had gone 4-2 up when Robert Taylor scored an own goal in the 68th minute but Dallas netted an own goal of their own in the 80th minute when Marco Farfan put a header into his net from a Messi cross. Soon after, Taylor had a moment of redemption when he was fouled by Eugene Ansah, setting up Messi for that stunning free-kick that sent the crowd of 19,096 into a frenzy. Miami co-owner David Beckham saw the first one at home 17 days ago. He was here for this one, too, in a stadium where tickets that normally go for about $40 were selling for hundreds of dollars, and in some cases listed for more than $1,000. “To have players like him here will make our players better,” Estevez said of Messi. “When you have to face this kind of level, you have to do better. And you can see FC Dallas today, how some of our players raised their level.” Associated Press Read More Argentina star defends Cristiano Ronaldo tattoo: ‘It’s not anti-Messi’ New Jersey Governor keen to host Premier League and Champions League matches Cole Palmer shows why he become Man City’s missing piece Cole Palmer shows why he become Man City’s missing piece England scrape into Women’s World Cup quarter-finals after penalty shootout drama England stars vow to rally round Lauren James after World Cup sending off

Yesterday, the Cleveland Guardians took care of business at home against the dreadful Oakland Athletics and now just need to take two more to sweep the series and maximize this opportunity to play the worst team in baseball.Game 2 of this three-game set will feature Paul Blackburn on the mound f...

Lauren James has scored twice as England advanced to knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup with a 6-1 rout of China

Olympic chief Thomas Bach on Thursday criticised the Ukrainian government for "sanctioning" its own athletes by not allowing them to...

With its first goal at its first Women’s World Cup the unfavored Philippines achieved its first win with a 1-0 upset over co-host New Zealand

Defending champion UConn comes into this season having lost the three biggest stars from last year's NCAA title team to the NBA

If the Pittsburgh Steelers decide to replace Kenny Pickett in the offseason, here are a few smart bets — and a couple names to avoid like death.

An Australian newspaper used a helicopter to spy on England's Lionesses training before their World Cup semi-final against Australia. The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney sent up the aircraft to capture images from the Lionesses’ behind-closed-doors session at their training base as they finalised plans for the semi-final against the co-hosts on Wednesday. Alongside the headline “Eleven Poms against a nation: Welcome to the jungle, Lionesses”, the pictures show the head coach, Sarina Wiegman, and her staff training. The newspaper wrote: “If England’s Lionesses thought they would happily fly into the World Cup semi‑final under the radar they were in for a rude shock. We’ve sent the chopper up to see how the old enemy are preparing … Welcome to the jungle, Lionesses, we’ve got fun and games. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It continued: “As the Matildas held their final training session behind closed doors at Kogarah, about 100km north at Central Coast Stadium in Gosford the England team attempted to finalise their preparations without any prying eyes. They then referenced when Australian opener David Warner and his teammates were unhappy when the ball was changed mid-innings during England’s victory in the fifth Ashes Test last month, writing: “It might not be in the spirit of football, but after last month’s men’s Ashes cricket series we will let the moral arbiters England pass judgment on what is and isn’t acceptable in the world of sport.” Australia and England have a longstanding sporting rivalry but so far have behaved themselves ahead of the big match, which will see one team go to the final and play Spain, who won their own semi-final game against Sweden. The Football Association has declined to comment on the incident. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Edge rusher Carl Nassib, the NFL’s first openly gay player to play in a regular-season game, announced his retirement on Wednesday

Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier confirmed Lionel Messi "will start" Saturday's Ligue 1 game against Ajaccio, marking the...

DENVER — The Los Angeles Angels made a move to strength their infield by acquiring Eduardo Escobar from the New York Mets on Friday. It could be the start of a push to build the Angels into playoff contenders.While there have been plenty of rumors swirling about the future of Shohei Ohtani...