Chelsea conceded at Stamford Bridge and fell to a 3\u20131 defeat by Nottingham Forest on Monday, a result that underlined a season slipping out of their control. The Blues ended a nine-hour wait for a Premier League goal with Jo\u00e3o Pedro\u2019s acrobatic strike in stoppage time, but that consolation did little to alter the match\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n
Nottingham Forest struck twice in quick succession. Igor Jesus converted from the spot after a VAR-recommended review following Malo Gusto\u2019s shirt pull on Taiwo Awoniyi, and Awoniyi added a second at the start of the second half following a dangerous delivery from Dilane Bakwa and good work from Morgan Gibbs-White. Cole Palmer had a first-half penalty saved by Matz Sels, and Jo\u00e3o Pedro briefly had a goal ruled out for offside before scoring his late overhead kick.<\/p>\n
The defeat drops Chelsea to ninth and extends a run of six straight defeats for the first time since 1993. Nottingham Forest are described in the report as practically safe. The assessment for the Blues was blunt: poor defending, ill-discipline and costly moments under VAR scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Individual ratings reflected a mixed performance. Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez (7.7) and Jo\u00e3o Pedro (7.7) were the highest-rated performers, while Marc Cucurella received 7.5. Malo Gusto\u2019s shirt pull and overall defending featured in the match\u2019s decisive moments; the full list of ratings in the report ranged from Robert S\u00e1nchez (5.8) to Cucurella and included several midrange scores across the back line and midfield.<\/p>\n
Substitutions included Liam Delap (45\u2019) and Levi Colwill (46\u2019), with Filip J\u00f6rgensen coming on at 66\u2019. Several players were unused on the bench, including Jorrel Hato, Josh Acheampong, Wesley Fofana, D\u00e1rio Essugo and Reece James. The report concluded with statistics that showed Chelsea dominating possession (68%) and attempts (21 shots) but falling short on the day; expected goals were 1.93 for Chelsea and 2.07 for Forest.<\/p>\n
With domestic cup progress now a vital objective, the result leaves Chelsea facing a critical period in which form must improve quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea lost 3-1 to Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge. It leaves them ninth after six defeats…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1639],"tags":[1162,944,1305],"class_list":["post-13624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-statistics","tag-analytics","tag-andrey-santos","tag-bench-selection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}