Axel Disasi's last header avoids Chelsea's blushes in the swing of the draw at Brentford | first division

Six days after losing at Wembley, Mauricio Pochettino's position at Chelsea felt its most precarious yet. Visiting fans said his name in vain and profanity, along with Todd Boehly's. José Mourinho and Roman Abramovich were gifted to the rafters. If only Chelsea could show something resembling the spirit of the exhausted Brentford.

Cole Palmer, once again Chelsea's talisman, provided the equalizer with an Axel Disasi header. Maybe the pressure is relieved for now – the club's countless executives don't need to make an emergency Zoom call just yet – but WhatsApp messages will note that the tide is almost completely against them. The Chelsea manager.

“Today is my 52nd birthday,” Pochettino said, expecting few happy results. “I know this business very well.” He chose, unconvincingly, to blame his team's lethargy on a week that also included Wednesday's victory over Leeds. The problem with that was how similar it was to so many other Chelsea performances under him.

Brentford's flow is much more understandable; Thomas Frank's team has a list of chronic casualties, Ben Mee will be out for the rest of the season to rob the Dane of an entire first-choice defense. “We played a game where we have seven key players out,” Frank said.

The fact that Matthew Benham, its owner, is seeking new investment is reminiscent of the financing required to establish a first division club. Fortune and physical fitness play their part, but so does the unity that was missing in the first half and revived in the second. Yoane Wissa's overhead kick to give Brentford the lead was a spectacular moment of inspiration, demonstrating the determination to be the first to the ball that few Chelsea players displayed.

Contrast that assumption of responsibility with Pochettino's shrug on Friday: the club's hierarchies give him no say in Conor Gallagher's future. Just the latest chapter in a Chelsea season in which dysfunction has been a key issue.

His team continues to reflect that timidity, capable of providing quality like Nicolas Jackson's excellent first goal, but also the collapse of concentration that allowed Mads Roerslev to equalize. By the time Brentford took a deserved lead, Chelsea's previous vigor having plateaued, the “multi-million dollar bottle jobs” label felt more pertinent than ever.

“I'm responsible, I'm the head coach,” Pochettino said, accepting his low popularity rating with another shrug. “I'm not worried. We need to accept this relationship. Someone asked me if I have love for the fans. We need to build our relationship between the coaching staff, the coach and the fans. You build your relationship by winning games.”

After a minute of applause for Stan Bowles, one of Brentford's favorite adopted sons, Gallagher lined up alongside Chelsea's odd couple of Moisés Caicedo and Enzo Fernández. In the second half, Caicedo reprimanded Malo Gusto, his team's best player, for a misjudged pass when his own performance once again asked what happened to the player seen in Brighton. Fernández was withdrawn as soon as Chelsea fell behind.

For Chelsea to take the lead in the first half, Jackson received a good cross from Gusto to head in confidently after a couple of previous misses. A much-derided striker scored his 11th goal of the season and Brentford's lack of defensive personnel once again looked costly. His deep, submissive attitude was jarring in light of the combativeness that has long been his trademark.

The break altered the panorama. Roerslev got the equalizer after hunting down a loose ball from Disasi and Djordje Petrovic absently saw him fall. When Vitaly Janelt hit the base of the post, old Brentford were back on track.

“The way we beat them in the second half was fantastic,” Frank said. “I am very proud today. This was a proper performance from Brentford. “We are the best high-pressure team in the league.”

Chelsea returned to the shapeless form that so angers its fans, an identity abandoned in the club's metamorphosis into an investment vehicle. The talent is there, but not the classic Chelsea qualities of a team with an iron will that attacks in waves.

As the end approached and legs tired, the home team retreated, and the Palmer dilettante calmed down under pressure by landing the ball where Disasi could barely miss saving his coach's blushes. For now at least. Few can expect the next step in Chelsea's evolution to include someone who has so audibly lost the public.