{"id":4049,"date":"2026-05-05T05:17:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=4049"},"modified":"2026-05-05T05:17:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:17:33","slug":"chelsea-1-3-nottingham-forest-awoniyis-double-ends-blues-top-five-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=4049","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea 1-3 Nottingham Forest: Awoniyi\u2019s double ends Blues\u2019 top-five dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Chelsea suffered a 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The visitors took an early lead inside 98 seconds after Taiwo Awoniyi met Dilane Bakwa\u2019s cross at the back post with a powerful header.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea almost responded right away at the other end when Joao Pedro set up Enzo Fernandez, whose strike from the edge of the area rattled the inside of the post.<\/p>\n<p>In the 15th minute, Forest were awarded a penalty after Malo Gusto brought down Awoniyi in the area. <\/p>\n<p>Igor Jesus stepped up for the spot-kick and converted beyond Robert Sanchez.<\/p>\n<p>Moments later, Jesse Derry\u2019s acrobatic effort sailed well over the bar as Chelsea searched for a route back into the game before Jesus struck his volley straight at Sanchez at the other end.<\/p>\n<p>Derry had his sights on goal again, but his effort was comfortably gathered by Matz Sels.<\/p>\n<p>In the 36th minute, the Tricky Trees were close to a third as James McAtee saw his effort deflect off Morato and nestled just wide of the post.<\/p>\n<p>Moments later, the hosts appealed for two penalties after Joao Pedro and Malo Gusto went down in the area, but referee Anthony Taylor waved play on.<\/p>\n<p>On the stroke of half-time, the Blues were awarded a penalty following a clash of heads between Derry and Abbott, but Cole Palmer saw his spot-kick saved by Sels.<\/p>\n<p>Seven minutes into the second half, Awoniyi grabbed his second and Forest\u2019s third, tapping in Morgan Gibbs-White\u2019s pass from close range.<\/p>\n<p>In the 73rd minute, Joao Pedro thought he had pulled one back for Chelsea after finishing off Marc Cucurella\u2019s cross, but after a VAR review, the goal was ruled out for offside.<\/p>\n<p>Moments later, Palmer saw his effort from distance palmed away by Sels.<\/p>\n<p>Deep into stoppage-time, Joao Pedro pulled one back for the hosts after he teed himself up using his chest before finishing with an overhead kick, ending the Blues\u2019 five-game goal drought.<\/p>\n<p>The result lifts Nottingham Forest to 42 points, six points clear of the drop zone with three games remaining, while also ending Chelsea\u2019s top-five ambitions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea suffered a 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}