A game that had it all so nearly lacked one thing.
There were two head-injury substitutions per team, open-play goals, converted penalties and missed penalties.
Yet the one thing missing for almost all the match as Chelsea were thrashed by much-changed Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge was a goal from the Blues, who threatened to lose six Premier League games on the bounce without scoring in any of them for the first time in their history.
Joao Pedro struck a magnificent bicycle kick in stoppage time to get Chelsea on the scoresheet and save them from that unwanted, unprecedented run being materialised, yet it was a mere footnote on another dismal afternoon for the Blues, beaten 3-1 and second best in every department.
Derry’s dramatic afternoon
Knocks to Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho before the game meant options out wide were at a premium. Calum McFarlane chose to reward 18-year-old academy star Jesse Derry with a full debut, his first start in senior football.
Under McFarlane when the interim head coach was the Under-21s’ manager, Derry had scored ten goals and registered an assist in 16 games, so the 38-year-old will have hoped the slim winger could influence proceedings.
The winger, too, will have hoped to make an impact on the day but not in quite the way things fared. Derry tried to take on his man, took risks, attempted an acrobatic volley which flew over the bar.
But then his afternoon was brought to an abrupt and unfortunate end as he clashed heads with Forest’s Zach Abbott inside the box.
A penalty was given — which Cole Palmer had saved — but only after a nine-minute delay in which time Derry was seen to and stretchered off.
Fortunately, he is conscious and talking after being rushed to hospital but it was a difficult end to a full debut for a youngster Chelsea have high hopes for.
Palmer fails trial in front of England manager
With England head coach Thomas Tuchel watching on, Palmer produced one of his poorest displays of a wholly off-colour season.
The playmaker is struggling to fulfil his most basic function of being a broadly creative player at present, and against Forest that was the case again as he found difficulty holding onto the ball, yet alone being useful with it.
He checked back on himself, tried to find an angle, but the visitors did a number on him and stayed close enough to have that there was never enough space for him to find half a yard, edge into it and take advantage.
His penalty, following Abbott’s foul on Derry, was on target and struck low but was far enough inside the post that Matz Sels could get down and save. You were left wondering whether it might have been struck with an extra ten per cent more conviction even 12 months ago when his game was in a better place.
It was a spot-kick befitting of a player low on confidence — his second penalty miss in 20 attempts in the Premier League.
Increasingly, in a No10 position that is England’s most competitive role, it is difficult to see how he makes it into Tuchel’s squad.
When Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson came on at half-time — rested for the first 45 by a Forest team prioritising their Europa League semi-final second leg — Tuchel’s attention surely pivoted to keeping tabs on them, so much of a lost cause did Palmer look. He risks slipping through the cracks and playing himself out of contention for the World Cup.
Colwill returns at last
Besides Joao Pedro’s superb goal, almost the only other point of encouragement for Chelsea to take away from their sixth straight league defeat was Levi Colwill making his first appearance for the club in 295 days.
Colwill came on at half-time for his first appearance since starting the Club World Cup final, which Chelsea won 3-0 against Paris Saint-Germain all the way back in mid-July last summer.
The ACL injury he sustained in the Blues’ very first training session of pre-season has kept him out for the entirety of the season.
A couple of uncompetitive appearances for the U21s over the past three weeks, both as captain, had been the extent of his involvement until he came on to a loud applause at Stamford Bridge.
An afternoon to forget could prove an important stepping stone for Colwill on his route back to his best.
