Chelsea’s poor run got even worse this Monday (4).
Even playing at Stamford Bridge, they lost 3-1 to Vitor Pereira’s Nottingham Forest in the 35th round of the Premier League.
It was the Blues’ SIXTH CONSECUTIVE defeat in the competition.
The WORST streak in the club’s history since 1993.
But at least Brazil international hopeful João Pedro had something to celebrate.
After plenty of persistence, the Brazilian scored a beautiful bicycle kick deep into stoppage time.
Ending Chelsea’s scoring drought of more than NINE HOURS (or 543 minutes) without a goal in the PL — the previous five defeats had all come without finding the net.
He reached 20 goals for the season, 15 of them in the Premier League.
Heavy collisions and medical treatment
Forest — who rested three starters with the Europa League in mind — went ahead after just two minutes through Awoniyi.
He himself won a penalty shortly after after being fouled by Gusto, and Igor Jesus made it 2-0 in the 15th minute.
It was the former Botafogo striker’s 15th goal of the season.
The closing stages of the first half featured a very heavy collision between Zach Abbott and the day’s debutant Jesse Derry.
It ended with a penalty being awarded to Chelsea.
Treatment took 15 minutes, with Blues player Derry coming off worse.
Palmer stepped up to take it, but Sels made the save.
Awoniyi scored another for the visitors in the 52nd minute.
What followed brought another heavy collision and two more substitutions: Gibbs-White, who is now a concern for the Europa League, and Robert Sánchez.
João Pedro even scored in the 73rd minute, but it was ruled out for offside.
And his aforementioned bicycle-kick goal came in the 93rd minute.
Is Forest already safe?
Nottingham secured a huge result before turning their focus back to the Europa League semifinal.
They will visit Aston Villa next Thursday (7) after winning the first leg 1-0.
Monday’s win took the team to 42 points in the PL. They sit in 16th place.
They opened up a six-point lead over West Ham, who are 18th. Also outside the bottom three, Tottenham have one more point than the Hammers (37).
There are three games left for each team.
As for Chelsea, they remain on 48. They are ninth and running out of steam in the race for a European spot through the PL.
The current holder of the place that guarantees a Conference League spot in 26/27 is Brentford (51).
The focus may now be on beating Manchester City in the FA Cup to qualify for next season’s Europa League.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.
