Predicted Chelsea Lineup vs Brentford, Conte to make nine changes

Ivanovic is free to leave Chelsea this month and is in talks with Zenit St Petersburg.

But former Premier League striker Sutton was clear in what the club should do with Gordon after Chelsea’s approach.

He has struggled to feature on a regular basis under Conte this season and the Italian boss accepts the Serbian has seen little in the way of game time.

“For sure, about this situation it’s better to talk with the player, no?”

“He deserves great respect for his Chelsea career and he has won a lot”.

Antonio Conte’s men dominated from the off, with their fringe players aiming to make an impact and it was Willian who opened the scoring, curling home a wonderful free-kick past Daniel Bentley after 14 minutes.

“I am pleased and very happy for the commitment from my team”, Conte said after the win.

Ake has the ability to play wing-back, but is much more effective – and important to the team’s evolution – as centre-back.

Goalkeeper Asmir Begovic made a number of key interventions to frustrate Brentford. The Bosnian global has had to make do with being Thibaut Courtois’ understudy and is attracting interest from Bournemouth.

“It was a good result for us”. We have only two days to prepare. We have some situations. “If it’s not possible, Begovic stays with us”.

Kenedy will be part of the squad for the second half of the season after coming off the bench as he now can not be loaned out again, having already played for Watford. Despite saying that he is wholly focused on Saturday’s tie, Conte’s priority clearly is Tuesday’s tilt against Liverpool. It’s a really tough game, an important game.

He reinforced that status on Saturday, using the ball sensibly and efficiently even in the face of Brentford’s fierce second-half pressing.

“To score a goal is always important for a player”, he said. After this game there will be 15 games to finish the season.

The Bhoys manager was insistent that Gordon is a player they want “to keep” and “build the team around”. Now it is very hard because not one club is able to sell you a good player.

Chelsea are one of the biggest clubs in the world and could end up winning the Premier League title this season.