Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest: Match preview, predicted line-ups, team news and prediction

Nottingham Forest stretched their unbeaten run to nine matches in all competitions with a narrow 1-0 victory over the Villans in Thursday’s Europa League semi-final first leg.

Chris Wood’s second-half penalty proved decisive for Vitor Pereira’s side, who have now won four games in a row in all competitions.

The Tricky Trees thrashed Sunderland 5-0 in their last Premier League outing, moving eight points clear of the drop zone and boosting their hopes of securing top-flight survival.

Forest have lost just two of their eight Premier League away games against Chelsea (W2 D4) and are unbeaten in all three visits to Stamford Bridge since their return to the competition in 2022 (W1 D2).

Team news

McFarlane has confirmed that Reece James and Levi Colwill could return to the matchday squad after their respective injuries.

While Estevao Willian, Filip Jorgensen and Jamies Gittens are on the sidelines for the hosts.

Forest suffered a fresh injury blow on Thursday as Ola Aina was forced off in the second-half and is doubtful.

Dan Ndoye, Ibrahim Sangare, Jair Cunha and Murillo missed their UEL semi-final victory over Villa and are also doubts.

Nicolo Savona, Callum Hudson-Odoi, John Victor and Willy Boly are unavailable with injuries.

Predicted line-ups

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella, Lavia, Caicedo, Palmer, Fernandez, Neto, Joao Pedro.

Nottingham Forest (4-4-2): Sels, Abbott, Milenkovic, Morato, Williams, McAtee, Anderson, Dominguez, Gibbs-White, Jesus, Lucca.

Prediction: Chelsea 2-1 Nottingham Forest.