Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest - Match Preview

One last time before the International break

The Premier League season is now in full flow and the madness of the summer transfer window is set to close in a few more hours. Chelsea have had a very good summer transfer window in terms of both incomings and outgoings but its now time to focus on the football.

Chelsea now face Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge after back to back victories versus Luton Town and AFC Wimbledon in the last few days. Mauricio Pochettino’s men have had a fairly mixed start to the season after failing to get results vs Liverpool and West Ham. The comforts of Stamford Bridge will be a welcome sight for the men in blue as they look to make it 3 wins in a row in all competitions, a feat last seen back in October 2022 under former Chelsea manager, Graham Potter.

Chelsea will face Nottingham Forest for the 97th time in all competitions and the Blues have the upper hand historically in this fixture beating the East Midland side 40 times. Chelsea’s last defeat to Forest in the Premier League came back in 1997 and since then, have never lost to them. The last two meetings however ended in chaotic draws with former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard managing a 2-2 draw back in May 2023, which saw Raheem Sterling and Taiwo Awoniyi score a brace each.

Injuries and Team News

From Chelsea’s perspective, Pochettino did confirm that Armando Broja and Benoit Badiashile will not be ready until after the International break in his Carabao cup press conference and I expect both players to not be a part of the squad. As of writing this article, it is expected that Trevoh Chalobah will leave Chelsea to Bayern Munich on a loan deal and there is an air of doubt surrounding the futures of Ian Maatsen, Connor Gallagher and Marc Cucurella at Chelsea.

New signing Cole Palmer should make the bench assuming he’s registered on time. His Manchester City academy team mate, Romeo Lavia, who also joined Chelsea this season is not expected to make his debut in the game with Pochettino quoting the following on August 24: 'He needs a few weeks to be ready to be involved with the team. He is working to try and catch his teammates.'

Mykhailo Mudryk was back in training with the first team squad after a slight knock with kept him out of the game vs AFC Wimbledon midweek and Levi Colwill, who gave us all an injury scare mid week is expected to feature this weekend after the young English centre back earned his first England National team call up yesterday.

Nottingham Forest have no significant first team injuries to report with the exception of full back Danilo who suffered a hamstring injury. Welsh Forward Brennan Johnson, who was a subject of Chelsea interest earlier in the transfer window, also was last seen holding his hamstring in a 3-2 defeat to Manchester United last week. Currently, there is no confirmation about his involvement tomorrow as the forward is also the subject of a potential transfer to Tottenham.

Former Chelsea winger Callum Hudson Odoi is expected to finalise his transfer to Forest today and they have also signed midfielder Andrey Santos on loan from Chelsea. I expect both players to not play a part in Steve Cooper’s side this weekend.

Predicted Line Up and Match Predictions

This will be a tough line up to predict especially with the future of Connor Gallagher in the balance and I have left Gallagher out of the 11 due to this speculation. I expect Noni Madueke to get the nod from Pochettino and start vs Forest in the Right wing with Sterling moving to the left. Pochettino has been very consistent with his starting 11’s this season so far so I expect no other changes in defence and midfield for this game.

I predict a 3-1 win in favour of Chelsea with goals from Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson. Nottingham Forest have shown that they are indeed a very dangerous side last week vs Manchester United with both their goals coming off the counter attack. Chelsea however have a much superior midfield and defence compared to The Red Devils and Forest shouldn’t expect to run riot vs Moises Caicedo like they did last week. A clinical edge has been missing in our game and as long as we bury our chances at the right time, I don’t see Forest posing much of a threat to us.

Thank you all so much for reading my first contribution to Simon’s page. I will be a regular contributor to the site on various topics. As always, your feedback is very important to me to help improve myself further and I would love to discuss the game with all of you in the comments as well. I hope everyone enjoys the game and the weekend ahead.

Vivek Goutham Kannan