Chelsea vs Nottingham: Blues look to keep working their way up the table
Chelsea will be hoping to make it two wins on the spin when they welcome Nottingham Forest on Saturday. The Blues, who are not featuring in Europe after finishing in a dismal 12th place last season, have already quite a bit of work to do this season. It’s been quite a busy summer for Chelsea, especially in terms of personnel changes. Indeed, several players, including N’Golo Kante, Edouard Mendy, Christian Pulisic, Kalidou Koulibaly, César Azpilicueta, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mason Mount, and Mateo Kovacic Ruben Loftus-Cheek have all left the club, while the Blues continued to splash the cash with the acquisitions of Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, Moisés Caicedo, Lesley Ugochukwu, Roméo Lavia, Robert Sánchez, and Axel Disasi costing upwards of $230 million.
A bumpy start to the season for Chelsea
The Blues also have a new man on the tactician’s bench, with former PSG and Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino taking over, but it hasn’t been the smoothest start for the Argentinian manager. Chelsea opened their Premier League campaign with an encouraging 1-1 draw against Liverpool, but were dealt a huge setback as they ended up losing 3-1 to West Ham on matchday two. However, the Blues restored some of their confidence following a comfortable 3-0 win over newly promoted Luton Town with Raheem Sterling directly involved in all three goals, and following a hard-fought 2-1 win over Wimbledon in the EFL Cup, are hoping to win three matches in a row for the first time in five months.
The victory against Luton Town also ended a foul streak for Chelsea, who prior to that win had failed to win their last eight games at home in Premier League play. It also marked the first time that the Blues were able to keep a clean sheet since April, but they will be facing an opponent desperate for points following a disappointing result in their own EFL Cup tie midweek.
From jubilation to despair for Nottingham Forest
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest, who narrowly escaped the drop, will need to pick themselves up after back to back disappointing results. Although they put up a good fight on matchday one, Steve Cooper’s men were still left empty handed following a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal. However, a well-deserved 2-1 win over fellow minnows Sheffield certainly uplifted their spirits to the point that they managed to set a huge record against Manchester United at Old Trafford on matchday three.
Indeed, goals from Taiwo Awoniyi and Willy Boly helped Nottingham to race into a 2-0 lead, and made them the first team to score twice in four minutes against the Red Devils in Premier League play at Old Trafford. However, their naivete soon got the better of them as the hosts began to assert themselves on the match, with Christian Eriksen and Casemiro bringing the scores level, and following Joe Worrall’s early dismissal, Nottingham’s resolve crumbled. A silly foul on Marcus Rashford ended their hopes of even securing a point as Bruno Fernandes converted from the spot to break the traveling fans’ hearts and leave the visitors empty handed.
Following that, Nottingham were beaten 1-0 by Burnley in the EFL Cup, but may be hopeful of causing Chelsea some troubles in this weekend’s game. Last season saw Nottingham secure a point at Stamford Bridge following a 2-2 draw, but of concern is their poor away record, which has seen them fail to win their last 12 road fixtures.
Still, the onus will be on Chelsea, not Nottingham. The two sides are just a point apart in the table, with Chelsea sitting in tenth place on four points, while Nottingham are in 14th place on three points. Arguably, despite their rocky start, Nottingham have actually done much better than Chelsea – especially considering that they have already faced Arsenal and Manchester United and lost just by one goal. Chelsea, meanwhile, will be feeling the pressure to start picking up points if they want to avoid losing too much ground on other bigger sides such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Arsenal.
