Chelsea 1-3 Nottingham Forest: Awoniyi brace moves Garibaldi closer to safety

Forest took the lead in the opening two minutes when Awoniyi’s powerful header flew into the top corner off the back of Dilane Bakwa’s cross. Chelsea went in search of an instant equaliser, but Palmer failed to connect with Enzo Fernández’s ball to the back post. The Argentine came close to drawing the Blues level himself moments later, hitting the post from inside the area. Forest’s Morato picked up the first yellow card after fouling João Pedro.

Anthony Taylor was sent to the VAR monitor after 13 minutes, where he subsequently awarded the visitors a penalty after Malo Gusto pulled Awoniyi back; Gusto was booked for the foul. Jesus stepped up to the spot and calmly passed the ball into the net to double his side’s lead.

Palmer flashed the ball wide of the top corner five minutes after the goal, as he looked to get Chelsea back into the game. Derry registered his first top-flight shot with an acrobatic effort that ended up in the top tier of the stand behind the goal.

Robert Sánchez made his first save of the afternoon on the half-hour mark, denying Jesus a second. Chelsea’s first shot on target came through Derry, who forced a strong save from Matz Sels after 35 minutes.

A nasty clash of heads between Derry and Zach Abbott shortly before the break saw Taylor award another penalty, this time to Chelsea. Derry was unable to continue the match following the incident and was replaced by Liam Delap. Abbott was also withdrawn and replaced by Neco Williams. Palmer failed to convert the penalty, with Sels saving down to his right and keeping his side’s two-goal lead intact going into half-time.

Chelsea introduced Levi Colwill at the break; he replaced Tosin Adarabiyo for his first league appearance of the season following a lengthy injury. Forest also made a triple change at the break, with Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliott Anderson and Nikola Milenkovic replacing Jair Cunha, Nicolás Dominguez and Jesus.

Gibbs-White made an immediate impact, setting up Awoniyi for his second of the match, and extending Forest’s lead to three early in the second half. McFarlane turned to his bench again following the goal, with Romeo Lavia being replaced by Andrey Santos.

Another clash of heads came on the hour mark, this time involving Gibbs-White and Sánchez. Both players were substituted, replaced by Chris Wood and Filip Jörgensen, respectively. Minutes later, Chelsea appeared to have ended a nine-hour run without a league goal when Pedro headed home from close range, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

Moisés Caicedo was shown a yellow card in the 77th minute for a foul on James McAtee, whilst Delap was also booked for dissent following the foul. Omari Hutchinson was introduced by Vitor Pereira with 10 minutes remaining, replacing Bakwa, before Sels once again denied Palmer as the clock wound down.

Pedro did eventually find the net for Chelsea, with an impressive overhead kick into the far corner. However, it proved to be too little too late for the Blues.