Reece James points finger at Chelsea teammates after Brentford disappointment

Chelsea captain Reece James expressed his frustration after the club dropped points in their draw with Brentford.

The Blues were minutes away from securing a victory against the Bees at the Gtech Community Stadium before conceding a stoppage time equaliser in a 2-2 draw in West London.

Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo scored the goals for Chelsea, which proved not to be enough to claim a victory, with Kevin Schade and Fabio Carvalho on the score sheet for Brentford.

James was named on the bench by head coach Enzo Maresca but was brought on at half time when Chelsea were trailing 1-0 at the time.

Carvalho's goal came from a long throw-in during second-half stoppage time, denying Chelsea a victory with just a couple of minutes remaining in the contest.

James also explained why he was frustrated by the manner in which Chelsea conceded the goal in the closing moments of the game.

"It’s disappointing not to win," Reece told the Chelsea club website. "We came here to win, and we found ourselves a goal down, and we adapted the way we played and got ourselves back into the game. They are a strong team, and they punished us.

"We’re not happy with drawing, but we’ll keep fighting. We’ll have to accept the result and move forward."

James also called his teammates out for their first-half showing. "There are many factors as to why the first half wasn’t good enough," he added. "It’s a difficult place to come and we’re coming into games after an international break and that’s always tough. It’s no excuse – we have super high standards here.

"They caught us on the counter [in the first half], and we were prepared for that, but we didn’t deal with it. The second one is a set-piece where they are super strong and we didn’t deal with it today."

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