Chelsea 1 – 3 N Forest

Nottingham Forest stunned woeful Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge to go six points clear of the Premier League relegation zone and send a warning shot to Aston Villa ahead of Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg.

As the home fans raged at a sixth-straight Premier League defeat for Chelsea, which puts their own European qualification chances in serious doubt, the visitors celebrated an emphatic victory which few would have predicted when the team sheets came out.

Vitor Pereira made eight changes to his starting XI with the Villa game seemingly on his mind. But it turned out to be a masterstroke of a gameplan from the head coach, with his fringe players first seizing their opportunity before his star men saw the team to victory. Forest’s prospects on both domestic and European fronts have been boosted.

Chelsea stay ninth,10 points off fifth-placed Aston Villa and three off Brentford in the final European spot in seventh. The FA Cup could yet provide them a gateway to the Europa League but their semi-final win at Wembley last time out was supposed to reignite their season. They fell back into their bad ways here.

Any suggestion Forest had switched priorities away from the Premier League was blown out of the water after just 97 seconds, when Taiwo Awoniyi rose to head in Dilane Bakwa’s cross.

The marking from the Chelsea defence was non-existent and, after Enzo Fernandez struck a post as the home side scrambled for a response, there was more dreadful defending, with Malo Gusto pulling Awoniyi’s shirt in the box to hand Igor Jesus the chance to double the lead on 15 minutes.

Chelsea had their own opportunity to score a penalty just before half-time when there was a nasty clash of heads between Forest defender Zach Abbott and Blues Premier League debutant Jesse Derry, but Cole Palmer saw his spot-kick saved by Matz Sels.

It was just the second Premier League penalty he’s failed to score in 20 attempts but the circumstances were difficult. After almost 10 minutes of treatment on the pitch, 18-year-old Derry had to be stretchered away and taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

Levi Colwill came on for his first Chelsea appearance of the campaign at half-time, having overcome the ACL injury he suffered on the first day of pre-season. But there was also a significant triple change from Forest, with Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson and Nikola Milenkovic sent on.

Pereira’s call to introduce his big names looked inspired when Anderson played Gibbs-White through to tee up Awoniyi for Forest’s third just seven minutes into the second half.

Awoniyi was narrowly onside. Joao Pedro was spotted to be narrowly offside by VAR when he thought he’d pulled one back for Chelsea on 73 minutes.

The Brazilian did eventually get on the scoresheet with a brilliant overhead in stoppage time as the home side piled on the pressure. But it was about the only thing that went right for Chelsea, on a day where everything turned to gold for Pereira and Forest.

Carragher: Chelsea a broken football club

Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports:

“It’s shocking and it comes from the top.

“There’s five or six really top players on the pitch today and they’ve been beaten by Nottingham Forest’s B team.

“Less than 12 months ago, they were taking PSG to the cleaners.

“There’s no connection between the players and the staff, the players and the fans.

“In some ways, it’s a good thing because it tells you that football isn’t just all about spending money, buying players and this revolving door.

“It’s about creating togetherness and there’s nothing there. They look like a broken football club right now.”

Forest sweat on Gibbs-White Europa League availability

Nottingham Forest could be sweating on the availability of Morgan Gibbs-White for Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg at Aston Villa after he was taken off with a head injury in the second half.

Gibbs-White collided with Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, which saw blood on Gibbs-White’s face. The pair both walked off with bandages around their heads.

Concussion protocols could mean Gibbs-White may miss out on Thursday’s trip to Villa Park, where Forest take a 1-0 first-leg lead.

Story of the match in stats

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