It was suggested before the game that Vitor Pereira, the manager of relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest, had taken a huge gamble by resting his best players for the Europa League semi-final second leg against Aston Villa on Thursday and playing a second team against Chelsea instead.
Well, the second team was plenty good enough. Chelsea were so pathetic in this shambling 3-1 defeat that Forest’s third team would probably have got the job done as well. And if Forest had a fourth team, I’d have backed them to beat this sorry rabble in blue, too. Chelsea were that bad. Stamford Bridge was as quiet and as subdued as I have ever heard it.
I’m afraid that this is what happens when you have a club hierarchy, with its two co-owners and its five sporting directors, so inept, incompetent and confused, that they fire Liam Rosenior and entrust their last chance of qualifying for the Champions League, a prize worth more than £100m, to a novice temporary boss who has not even completed his coaching badges.
What happened here at Stamford Bridge was not Calum McFarlane’s fault but this capitulation by a group of over-entitled, overpaid superstars who looked as if they would rather be either on a beach, in a Real Madrid shirt, speeding down the hard shoulder of the A3 or telling their barber the team line-up, was an embarrassment. There is no other word for it.
The defeat left Chelsea marooned in ninth place, four points shy of sixth place, which, in theory, might yet earn a Champions League spot. They have zero chance of earning that on this display. They don’t deserve it.
They haven’t won at home in the league since January 31, when they beat West Ham. Until Joao Pedro scored a spectacular overhead kick deep in added time, they had not even scored in the league for two months. Their owners should be ashamed of what they have done to a once-proud club.
Taiwo Awoniyi (left) scored twice for Nottingham Forest as they beat Chelsea 3-1 on Monday
The result deepens the crisis at Chelsea who have lost their last six Premier League matches
Awoniyi opened the scoring for Forest inside two minutes with this header at Stamford Bridge
For Pereira and Forest, it was an unbridled triumph. This stroll of a victory leaves his team six points clear of West Ham United, who occupy the uppermost of the relegation places. Forest have a vastly superior goal difference, too. They are now unbeaten in seven league games. They are safe, basically.
The only blot on their landscape was a second half injury to Morgan Gibbs-White, who had been left out of the starting line-up but had come on at half-time. He was involved in a sickening collision with Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and was led from the pitch, bandaged and bloodied. His participation on Thursday must be in doubt.
Forest confounded all the criticism aimed at Pereira for making eight changes from Forest’s previous game by taking the lead after 97 seconds. Dilane Bakwa beat Marc Cucurella easily down the right and crossed to the back post where Taiwo Awoniyi rose in between two Chelsea defenders and nodded the ball past Robert Sanchez.
Enzo Fernandez hit the post with a curling shot but any hopes Chelsea had of mounting an immediate comeback suffered another blow ten minutes later when Malo Gusto pulled back Awoniyi as he tried to latch on to a cross from the right by Bakwa.
Referee Anthony Taylor was asked by VAR to look at the incident and awarded a penalty. Awoniyi took the penalty and clipped it confidently past Sanchez. Forest’s second string were 2-0 up inside 15 minutes.
Chelsea improved gradually – it would have been hard not to – but Forest still looked the more dangerous side when they attacked. And Chelsea’s defence still looked clueless. When they worked a simple short corner to James McAtee, he ran on to it totally unmarked. Only a deflection off his own player prevented a third goal.
Chelsea grew desperate. Joao Pedro jinked his way into the box and took a blatant dive as the ball ran out of play. Then he had the gall to complain when Mr Taylor dismissed his appeals with the scorn they deserved.
Igor Jesus (right) doubled the visitors’ lead from the penalty spot in the 15th minute
Jesse Derry suffered a worrying head injury after an accidental collision with Zach Abbott
Cole Palmer (left) saw his penalty saved by Matz Sels before half-time in a blow for Chelsea
Chelsea looked incapable of creating a meaningful opening until their young winger, Jesse Derry, who was making his first league start, stepped up and put his body on the line. Derry challenged for a header in the box with Zach Abbott and when the two men clashed heads, Derry was knocked unconscious.
Mr Taylor awarded a penalty but the next 10 minutes were full only of concern for Derry who lay motionless on the pitch while he was being treated by Chelsea medics. Derry was lifted on to a stretcher as the Forest fans behind the goal applauded him.
Chelsea thought they had pulled a goal back 18 minutes from time when Joao Pedro headed the ball home from close range after Sels had saved his first effort. But this was not Chelsea’s day. VAR showed that Joao Pedro was marginally offside.
Eventually, Derry was carried from the pitch with an oxygen mask over his face. Abbott had to be replaced, too. It appeared as if he were suffering from concussion. Liam Delap came on for Derry and Palmer took the penalty. Forest keeper Matz Sels guessed correctly, dived to his right and saved it.
It was only the second time Palmer has missed a penalty in 20 attempts in the Premier League. There is a wider question here, too. When Palmer’s form is this miserable, can Thomas Tuchel, who was in the crowd at Stamford Bridge, really take him to the World Cup? A year ago, that question would have been heresy. Not any more.
Forest brought on Gibbs-White and Anderson at half time and they both looked a class above Chelsea’s disinterested players immediately. Anderson swarmed all over the Chelsea midfield. He made them look tired and pedestrian.
Seven minutes after half-time, Forest were three up. Anderson set Gibbs-White free on the right, Gibbs-White slid a low cross to the back post and Awoniyi hurtled in to stab it home. Chelsea appealed for offside but replays showed Awoniyi was behind the ball when it was played.
Awoniyi extended Forest’s lead after half-time with this close-range finish on 52 minutes
There was another nasty head clash involving Morgan Gibbs-White (left) and Robert Sanchez
Joao Pedro pulled one back for Chelsea in second-half stoppage time with this bicycle kick
Then the game witnessed another sickening collision. Gibbs-White, who had only been on for 20 minutes, chased a through ball, Sanchez came to try to clear it and the two men ended up in a heap on the turf.
Again, there was a prolonged period of treatment. Gibbs-White was led from the pitch, bandaged and bloodied, his availability for the tie with Villa now in doubt.
The game petered out, although its closing stages were decorated by a magnificent consolation goal from Joao Pedro, who took a header from Cucurella on his chest with his back to goal and executed a brilliant overhead kick that flew past Sels.
It was a beautiful strike, very much at odds with the dross Chelsea had produced throughout the course of the rest of the afternoon.
