Chelsea’s dismal second half to the season sunk to new lows as they lost six league matches in a row for the first time in over three decades, The Independent reports.
Their 3-1 home defeat to a second-string Nottingham Forest side – who have embarked on a brilliant winning run under Vitor Pereira to take them to the brink of safety – was their sixth in succession, marking the first time they have lost six league games in a row since November 1993.
They were already on the club’s worst run since 1912 – but they at least avoided going six games without scoring for the first time in the club’s history, thanks to Joao Pedro’s stoppage-time goal.
Taiwo Awoniyi opened the scoring inside the first two minutes before Igor Jesus scored a penalty after a thoughtless shirt-pull in the box by Malo Gusto on the Nigerian international.
The Nigerian added a third in the 52nd minute after Gibbs-White fired in a low cross, and although Pedro thought he had pulled one back for the hosts, VAR deemed him offside by the width of a few toes.
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Cole Palmer also had a penalty saved by Forest keeper Matz Sels at the end of the first half after Zach Abbott was penalised for a foul on Jesse Derry, who was taken off on a stretcher and transported to hospital following their nasty collision.
Pedro did however redeem himself with a superb injury-time goal, chesting the ball down with his back to goal from a Marc Cucurella cross before a superb bicycle kick into the back of the net, ending a nine-and-a-half hour run of play for Chelsea without scoring.
The managerless Blues, currently overseen by interim manager Calum McFarlane after the sacking of Liam Rosenior, haven’t won in the Premier League since January.
To make matters worse those losses have been emphatic: until Pedro’s late consolation this was on course to be their fourth 3-0 defeat in the Premier League in the space of five games, although they managed to avoid that unwanted statistic.
The result leaves Chelsea in ninth, 10 points away from the Champions League places, and in danger of dropping into the lower half of the table.
