Nottingham Forest and Chelsea are meeting in the final Matchday of the Premier League at the City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest.
What We Know
- First match: Chelsea - Nottingham Forest 1-1.
- Chelsea are leading the head-to-head: 41-31-27.
- Forest has just a single win in their last 12 against Chelsea (1-3-8).
- They have a solid 9-5-4 home league record.
- Chelsea has managed a 7-4-7 away league record.
Betting Tip: Nottingham Forest - Chelsea
Both Chelsea and Nottingham Forest will give it their best to qualify for the Champions League. Forest is very formidable at home, while the Londoners have been relatively underwhelming recently. We are going with the home team here.
- Betting Tip: Nottingham Forest to win or draw
- Odds: 1.75 (at the time of writing)
- Stake: 5
Nottingham Forest
It’s now or never for Forest. At the beginning of the season, no one would have expected that they would contend for a Champions League spot. Yet, the way things progressed over the season, it would be a surprise if they finished outside the top five, considering they spent most of the year in the top three.
Forest went through a period of bad performances, culminating in a disappointing home draw against Leicester. Failing to win against a team with nothing to play for (and already relegated) delivered a big blow to their Champions League chances.
There is still hope, and Forest will fight to the bitter end, looking to build on their recent away win at West Ham. There, they showed up for the first time in a while and came away with a deserved victory, even if the ending was stressful.
Bowen scored late for the Hammers and could have added another in stoppage time. Gibbs-White took advantage of a serious Areola error to give Forest the lead early, while Milenkovic doubled their lead in the second.
The away side was the better team in this one, and now they are treating the Chelsea game as a must-win. It will take more than just that, as they need the right results from other fixtures.
Chelsea
Chelsea has managed to reach this point with a lot of hard work and some luck - they are now called to not choke in the clutch. They have six wins in their last seven matches in all competitions, only losing to Newcastle a couple of games ago.
They took advantage of Manchester United’s Europa League preoccupation last week for a hard-fought win, harder than expected. They allowed United to create chances, and failed to create many of their own. Mount almost gave his team the lead against his former club.
Chelsea struggled to score with Nicholas Jackson suspended and Cole Palmer again out of form. Cucurella came up huge with a winner in the 71st minute, thanks to a cross by Reece James, who hit the post earlier. Indicative of the enormous pressure on Chelsea is that they resorted to time-wasting at the end of the game to maintain the result.
There is no margin for error against Forest, considering the fierce competition for a top-5 spot. Only a win can clinch a Champions League ticket, and everyone will be acutely aware of that.
