Graham Potter has admitted that Chelsea’s first-half performance was “not good enough” in the 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest.
Chelsea have picked up 15 points from Potter’s 10 Premier League games and the head coach criticised the pace of his players’ passing and movement as they failed to build on Raheem Sterling’s opener. He refused to accept that Chelsea had been “bullied” by Forest, however, as the promoted team came from behind to deserve the point gained by Serge Aurier’s second-half equaliser.
Potter said of the first half: “Our performance level wasn’t good enough to take the three points. We didn’t move the ball fast enough, [and there was] not enough movement.
“When the game became a bit more out of control [in the second half] we suffered with the duels and struggled to deal with that aspect. It’s a tough game; Forest played a good game but we’re disappointed with our performance over the 90 minutes and concerned we didn’t deserve the win. It would have been unfair [for us] to take the three points.”
Chelsea were missing Reece James, out for three to four weeks with a recurrence of the knee injury that ruled him out of the World Cup, Wesley Fofana (knee), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (calf), Ben Chilwell (hamstring), N’Golo Kanté (hamstring) and Édouard Mendy (shoulder).
Nottingham Forest are investigating reports of homophobic chanting by some of their fans during Sunday’s Premier League game against Chelsea.
Chelsea’s official LGBTQ+ supporters group tweeted towards the end of the first half to “totally condemn” the chant it said could be heard at the City Ground, during a match shown live on Sky Sports.
Forest said in a statement shortly after full time: “The club are aware of reports concerning chants aimed at Chelsea supporters from a minority of fans this evening and do not condone any type of discriminatory or offensive behaviour. The matter will be investigated.”
Chelsea Pride earlier tweet read: “We totally condemn the Chelsea Rent Boy chant that can be heard at the City Ground. Time to call this out the game is live on @SkySportsPL This is now classed as a hate crime.”
Forest’s LGBTQ+ group said it was embarrassed and ashamed by the abuse and apologised on behalf of those responsible. A tweet from LGBTQ+ Trickies read: “From all genuine #NFFC fans, please accept our apologies, not only do we hope @NottPolFootball will do their best to take action, we would hope @NFFC release a statement condoning [sic] this and take necessary action. We are embarrassed and ashamed." PA Media
Reinforcements are coming, with a £32.7m fee agreed for Monaco’s centre-back Benoît Badiashile and the striker David Datro Fofana signed from Molde for £8m. Chelsea are pursuing the Benfica midfield anchorman Erno Fernández, who has a £106m release clause.
Potter was frustrated with his team but praised the way Forest, roused by their raucous home following, made the game a battle. “Credit Nottingham Forest,” he said. “They are here [in the Premier League] for the first time in ages, celebrating everything, and rightly so. They have to use their advantages, which is the environment, the crowd. The second half, we didn’t control it well enough.
“I think we stood up today though. The effort was there. But away from home teams are not going to make it easy. [Opposing] players are asking [to exchange] shirts and we have to be humble enough to know that’s what we’re up against. [I’d] run through a brick wall to say: ‘I am going to be good enough to play for Chelsea.’”
Cooper was pleased with the way his team got up to the press with greater cohesion in the second half as they deservedly extended their unbeaten home run to six matches before they visit Southampton, bottom of the table, on Wednesday. Jesse Lingard, however, will be missing for a month with a hamstring injury.
This was the first time Forest have gained a point after going behind. “We should be pleased we were the better team and we should’ve won,” Cooper said. “But we didn’t. We will take the learnings from it.
“It’s step by step. We’ll never look too far ahead. We have Southampton now who have had an extra rest day more than us and we have to travel there. All [the] focus [is] on recovery now.”
