Chelsea face Nottingham Forest on Saturday away from home in the Premier League for the early evening 5.30pm kick off.
It’s a chance for Chelsea’s players, Mauricio Pochettino, and now Todd Boehly, to put their money where their mouths are and continue the momentum and more importantly, the top performances we have seen across the last two and a half games. They’ve all talked the talk this week, now it’s time to walk the walk.
I think many are getting carried away and have short memories. We all remember recent games and periods where we have played well for even three games in a row, but then completely fold over and drop off again in the next two. I think for my own sanity I am remaining very cautious and not getting overly excited like others seem to be. But continuing this good form and doing it again on Saturday against Forest will certainly help increase my optimism a little bit more. But even if we do, I will still be remaining cautiously optimistic. I have seen and heard it all before.
But, we do have a great chance now to keep this going and build on the positivity of the last couple of weeks, because we have been incredible, especially in the Tottenham and West Ham wins. Has the tide turned? Have we turned that corner? This game on Saturday will go a little way to answering those questions.
Forest away though is a pretty dangerous game to go an play right now, purely because we are three games off the end of the season, and they are still not safe at all from the relegation zone. A point and even more so three points, would be huge for them and this will be treated like a cup final for Nuno Espirito Santo and his players.
They won their last game 3-1 away from home against Sheffield United, which was a huge result for them. Former Chelsea man Callum Hudson-Odoi bagged a brace. and how he would love to prove a few people wrong on Saturday too.
In recent games, Forest have only narrowly lost to Liverpool and Brighton, and they have had hard earned draws against Luton Town and Crystal Palace. They’ve also beaten Fulham 3-1 and drawn 2-2 against Wolves. They can setup tough to beat at home and against bigger sides will play on the counter. They recently lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City, but they had more attempts on goal (14 vs 11) than City did, despite only having 33% possession.
Chelsea will have to be on it defensively and in transition on the counter and if we do lose the ball high up the pitch.
We can expect Chelsea to boss possession, but just like they have in the last two and a half games (I’m actually sick of writing that 😂), they will need to make the most of said possession and be as clinical as we have been of late. If we do that, then we should have no problems at all getting past this potential banana skin game.
Mauricio Pochettino will have the final team news tomorrow, but there should be more boosts and returns from injury and of course, Christopher Nkunku should be in the squad again. There’s no point me predicting the lineup today because we all know that more often than not, we get the shock of more players being added to the injury list from nowhere, so I’m not going to jinx anything!
I do however think we will win this game. I don’t think it will be a big scoreline like West Ham, because they were just so terrible against us and I don’t expect Forest to be in the same state as they were in – but I do think we will win this 2-0.
I’ve not predicted many wins lately, so hopefully the fact I am now predicting a win doesn’t come back to bite me!
The one thing that does stick in my mind is we lost the home fixture against Forest 1-0 back in September, so they know they can beat us. Before that defeat, we hadn’t lost to Forest since 1997! Forest also had their points deduction upheld after appeal, so that has made them even more determined to earn those points back in the final games.
Former Blue Ola Aina, who will be looking to lock down their left hand side along with Hudson-Odoi, says the rejected points appeal doesn’t matter to the squad and they will keep doing their job to earn points back in the Premier League.
But Chelsea, especially if we are using the momentum and really have turned the corner, should be going there on Saturday and getting all three points, without any real doubts. Do we want Europa League or not? If we do, this is a perfect chance to strengthen our fight for that. Go ahead and prove we are on our way back!