Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea Preview

Graham Potter and his Chelsea side will travel to the City Ground this Sunday to take on relegation candidates Nottingham Forest.

The hosts were outclassed in a 3-0 loss at Manchester United last time out, keeping them rooted in the relegation zone in 2022. That result was their ninth defeat of the season and makes Forest the side with the worst goal difference in the league (-22).

They will now  hope to start of a new year in a positive note  as they take on another of England’s elite here.

Steve Cooper will be midly confident his side will do well here given their home form. The hosts  have won 11 of their 13 points so far at the City Ground (W3, D2, L3). They are unbeaten in their last four PL matches on their own turf too (W2, D2), and they’ll need to extend that record if they are to escape the drop zone.

Meanwhile, Chelsea come into this tie on the back of an impressive 2-0 win over Bournemouth.

That win ended a run of three straight defeats for Potter’s men, launching them back into the top four race ahead of the new year.

They will now look to make it back-to-back wins for the first time since the early days of Potter’s reign when the Blues went on a five-game winning run.

The visitors have faced off with Forest five times this century, despite their 23-year absence from the top flight, with the Blues the dominant side, winning all five cup meetings and scoring 14 goals in the process.

This fixture therefore comes at the perfect time as the Blues look to recover from their second-worst start to a season at this stage since 2001/02. However, they have a poor record in their first games of the calender year, having not won their first PL game of a calendar year since 2016 (D4, L2 since).

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Premier League Fixtures:

Premier League Table