CHELSEA FANS TURNED on Mauricio Pochettino as they watched their side labour to a 2-2 draw at west London rivals Brentford.
The Blues were leading through a Nicolas Jackson header but were pegged back by Mads Roerslev’s close-range strike.
And shortly after Yoane Wissa put Brentford ahead with a spectacular overhead kick, the away fans began singing the name of former manager Jose Mourinho as well as calling for Pochettino to go.
But the Blues at least rescued a point on Pochettino’s 52nd birthday after Axel Disasi scored a late equaliser.
Jackson probably summed up his erratic first season leading the Chelsea line in the space of 10 first-half minutes.
First the Senegal forward embarked on a promising run into the Brentford area, only to try one step-over too many and somehow tackle himself.
Then he latched onto Enzo Fernandez’s through-ball, took it round Bees keeper Mark Flekken and rolled it towards an empty net.
However, he undercooked his finish and allowed Mathias Jorgensen to get back and hack the ball clear from underneath the crossbar.
But 10 minutes before half-time Jackson did brilliantly to leap between Bees centre-halves Jorgensen and Kristoffer Ajer and meet Malo Gusto’s cross with a powerful header to open the scoring.
Brentford’s resolve could never be questioned and the patched-up Bees duly hauled themselves level five minutes after half-time when Ivan Toney launched the ball into the area.
Sergio Reguilon’s shot was blocked but the ball rolled to wing-back Roerslev who lashed it past Djordje Petrovic.
They almost led two minutes later when Vitaly Janelt fired through a sea of Blue bodies and shaved the foot of the post.
But Chelsea blew a golden chance when Gusto led a four-versus-two counter-attack and squared the ball to Cole Palmer, who scuffed wide from 10 yards out.
It looked like a costly miss in the 68th minute when Reguilon crossed from the left, Frank Onyeka kept the loose ball alive and the Wissa acrobatically hooked it into the roof of the net.
But with seven minutes remaining Disasi arrived at the far post to head home a cross from Palmer and snatch a point for Pochettino.
The point was all the more valuable for Brentford as it keeps them one clear of Everton who are in 16th after a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of West Ham United.
The Hammers scored twice in stoppage time to come from behind at Goodison Park on a mixed afternoon for striker Beto.
The Portuguese forward’s redemptive goal after missing the Toffees’ first penalty of the season had put his side ahead but his joy was short-lived.
Kurt Zouma equalised within six minutes and then Tomas Soucek, with a brilliant outside-of-the-foot strike in the 91st minute was followed by Edson Alvarez’s breakaway as Everton’s winless run was extended to 10 matches.
A week which began with news of the Toffees’ 10-point deduction being reduced to six, lifting them out of the relegation zone, ended with more recriminations and questions.
Manager Sean Dyche’s decision to drop Dominic Calvert-Lewin after 20 games without a goal looked, on the face of it, understandable but when Beto missed two good early chances and then had his penalty saved by Alphonse Areola it started to look like a gamble gone wrong.
However, shortly after the break the Portuguese headed home James Garner’s hanging cross, responding after his decision to step up for the penalty had been greeted with some disquiet.
Dwight McNeil should have doubled their lead from Jack Harrison’s dinked square pass but Areola kept his close-range shot out and they paid for that as six minutes after taking the lead Zouma, who spent a season on loan at Everton, nodded in James Ward-Prowse’s corner.
That was the signal for the game to open up but that favoured the visitors, who have more quality in their team, and so it proved as Soucek whipped in Mohammed Kudus’ cross in added time.
Alvarez punished Everton further with an even later counter-attack as West Ham recorded only their second win in eight away games to move into seventh place.
