Jackson’s late winner lifts Chelsea’s hopes of Europe

Nottingham Forest should wait to make mathematically sure of their Premier League standing after conceding two late objectives in a 3-2 dwelling loss to Chelsea.

Forest started Saturday’s thrilling match understanding some extent from their ultimate two matches can be sufficient to safe security after Luton City’s 3-1 loss at West Ham United and Burnley’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

After Willy Boly cancelled out Mykhailo Mudryk’s strike contained in the opening 16 minutes, Callum Hudson-Odoi thought he had gained the sport with a pleasant 74th-minute roller in opposition to his former facet.

Nonetheless, Chelsea silenced the Metropolis Floor via quickfire objectives from Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson within the ultimate 10 minutes.

Chelsea’s third win in a row retains them seventh and degree on factors with Newcastle United in sixth, whereas Forest are three factors higher off than Luton with a match to go, however they’re 12 objectives higher off when it comes to objective distinction.

How the match unfolded

Mudryk managed Cole Palmer’s defence-splitting cross and completed throughout Matz Sels to present Chelsea the lead, however Boly levelled for Forest with a free header from Morgan Gibbs-White’s free-kick supply, the ball taking a spark off Conor Gallagher on its method in.

Forest additionally created loads of alternatives at 1-1 as Ryan Yates clipped the surface of the submit and Gibbs-White did likewise from a close-range header, with the rebound dropping to Chris Wooden.

The Forest striker by some means blazed over in one of many misses of the season, which nearly proved expensive as Thiago Silva clipped the submit on the different finish quickly after.

Hudson-Odoi was subsequent to hit the body of the objective, putting the bar with a deflected shot, but it surely didn’t seem to matter when he minimize inside Malo Gusto and curled the ball previous Djordje Petrovic.

Then got here a late twist, although, as substitute Sterling scored the same curling strike on the reverse finish within the eightieth minute, earlier than fellow alternative Reece James – coming back from a prolonged layoff – crossed for Jackson to go dwelling a dramatic winner lower than two minutes later.

Hudson-Odoi belter not sufficient

Hudson-Odoi was enjoying within the Premier League for the a hundredth time and he marked that landmark in model in opposition to his former facet, with whom he made 72 of these appearances.

The eight objectives he has scored this season are essentially the most by an English participant for Forest in a single Premier League marketing campaign since Jason Lee netted eight in 1995/96, whereas it’s twice as many as he managed for Chelsea throughout all these appearances.

That objective remarkably was not sufficient, although, because of Sterling and Jackson, that means Forest technically nonetheless want some extent to substantiate their security. Barring a really outstanding swing on the ultimate day, nonetheless, they are going to be secure for one more yr.

Palmer in Lampard and Drogba territory

Palmer brilliantly assisted Chelsea’s early opener and would have had one other had Jackson been extra medical in entrance of objective.

The England midfielder now has 31 direct Premier League objective involvements in his debut marketing campaign at Stamford Bridge, which no participant within the division can higher.

He’s additionally solely the third Chelsea participant to each rating 20 or extra objectives (21 in whole) and supply 10 or extra assists (10 in whole) in a Premier League season for Chelsea after Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, who each did so within the 2009/10 marketing campaign.

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Key info

Morgan Gibbs-White recorded his tenth help of the Premier League marketing campaign, with solely Ollie Watkins (12) making extra in 2023/24. He’s simply the third Nottingham Forest participant to hit double figures for assists in a single season within the competitors, after Bryan Roy in 1994/95 (11) and Ian Woan in 1995/96 (10).

Since Boxing Day 2023, solely three groups have picked up extra factors than Chelsea’s 35 within the Premier League (Man Metropolis, Arsenal and Liverpool). They’ve misplaced solely three of their 18 video games on this interval (W10 D5), with solely Man Metropolis (0) struggling fewer defeats.

Forest suffered their ninth dwelling defeat of the Premier League season, their joint-most in a 20-team marketing campaign within the competitors (additionally 9 in 1998/99).

Mudryk scored his fifth Premier League objective of the season for Chelsea, with three of these being the opening objective of the match – solely Cole Palmer (eight) has opened the scoring extra typically for the Blues within the competitors this season.