AfriqueCAN
A much-changed Nottingham Forest managed a remarkable 3-1 win over Chelsea on Monday afternoon, boosting their hopes of staying up and damaging the home side’s push for European football.
Despite making eight alterations to their starting line-up, Forest started well and went ahead after just two minutes, with Taiwo Awoniyi heading home to give his side the lead. Nottingham Forest were then given a penalty in the 13th minute after a video assistant referee reviewed for a shirt pull in the box on Awoniyi. Igor Jesus then converted the penalty. As the game edged towards half-time, Jesse Derry was fouled in the box by Zach Abbott — with a penalty given. Derry suffered what appeared to be a serious head injury, and there was extended treatment for the youngster before he was replaced by Liam Delap. However, Cole Palmer missed the subsequent penalty kick.
Forest made three changes at half-time, bringing on Morgan Gibbs-White, Nikola Milenkovic and Elliot Anderson, while there was a welcome return for Levi Colwill for Chelsea as a substitute. Gibbs-White had a huge impact on Forest’s third, starting off a move before making an excellent run and teeing up Awoniyi for his second. However, his afternoon took a bad turn after a clash with Robert Sanchez meant he had to be taken off as a substitute due to a head injury. Chelsea appeared to have ended their goal drought through Joao Pedro, but a video assistant referee check revealed the end of his foot was offside.
Joao Pedro did eventually score Chelsea’s first goal in their last six games, a remarkable overhead kick, but that proved to be too little too late for the hosts.
Everyone associated with Chelsea — from the players, staff and owners — should be embarrassed after a sixth defeat in a row, their worst run since 1993.
There were the customary boos and chants against the ownership during the 90 minutes. But perhaps the most damning thing was Chelsea fans chanting ‘we scored a goal’ and then ‘we nearly scored a goal’ when Joao Pedro found the net in the second half, only for it to be ruled offside. Forest fans were also chanting for a fourth, which symbolised just how much better they had been. Thousands of Chelsea fans had already left by the time Joao Pedro scored his spectacular consolation goal.