It’s been a couple weeks since Chelsea last played in the league, and in that time, we’ve fallen from an already disappointing position to an entirely unsightly one. Of course, it’s a bit of a bunfight in the middle of the table: four points separated positions six through twelve at the start of the weekend. Brighton’s defeat means that it’s currently Bournemouth in sixth after their 3-0 win over Crystal Palace earlier today. But we can move back up to seventh with a win, just one point behind the Cherries
with three games to go.
In order to that, we would have to do something we haven’t done in two months: win a Premier League game! Since our 4-1 win at Villa Park at the start of March, we’ve lost five in a row — plus another two in the Champions League. We do have three wins in this span, but all in the FA Cup, including last weekend’s semifinal win against Leeds United.
That was Calum McFarlane’s first win as interim-again head coach. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was important. And hopefully the start of a better run of results to finish out this season.
Date / Time: Monday, May 4, 2026, 15.00 BST; 10am EDT; 7:30pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Anthony Taylor (on pitch); James Bell (VAR)
Forecast: slight chance of rain
On TV: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); USA, Universo (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League, Canal+ Sport 3 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: Sky Go (UK); NBC Sports Live, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA); JioHotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Chelsea team news: Reece James and Levi Colwill have returned to full training this week and may even be in contention to make Monday’s matchday squad, though the club are wary of pushing too much too soon, understandably. Colwill has been out all season rehabbing his ACL, while the fear with James is that this injury could start another series of injuries. He’s managed to stay healthy and fit for most of the season thanks to careful workload management, after several years of constant injuries.
That said, we are a better team when those two are fit, so hopefully they get a chance to make an impact at some point still this season (like, say, the FA Cup final).
There are no other injury news of note, which means that McFarlane has plenty of options to choose from. Last weekend, he got the team to play a bit more coherent and cohesive football than we’ve seen recently, making some tactical choices to put individual players under less pressure — such as allowing Robert Sánchez to go long — and even managing to keep a clean sheet. We didn’t create too much, but we were able to go back to basics and do some of those basics fairly well. Low bar, I know, but at least we cleared it.
Nottingham Forest team news: Forest have been on a great run, and they’re now unbeaten in nine in all competitions after their 1-0 win over Aston Villa midweek in the Europa League semifinals. Despite that excellent run, they’re not entirely safe for next season, and are only three points clear of West Ham United in the final relegation spot. (Spurs are unfortunately now one point clear, following their 2-1 win at Villa Park on Sunday.)
Forest have crafted this nine-match unbeaten run on the back of good defending, keeping five clean sheets in the process. They have one of the better defensive records in the lower half of the table — they’ve conceded the same number of goals as we have, 45. They’ve also put five past Sunderland and four past Burnley in recent weeks however, with Morgan Gibbs-White especially in great form; he’s got seven goals in his last seven Premier League games (and 16 for the season in all competitions, a new career high).
Manager Vítor Pereira has several injury concerns in his squad, including to former Chelsea players Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina. CHO has been ruled out; Aina is facing a late fitness test, alongside Dan Ndoye, Ibrahim Sangaré, Jair Cunha, and most importantly, key center back Murillo. Willy Boly, Nicolò Savona, and backup goalkeeper John Victor are also out.
Previously: We’ve won three of our last four against Forest, including a 3-0 win at the City Ground in October. That would prove the final straw for manager Ange Postecoglou, fired just 18 minutes after the final whistle. Ouch.
