Cole Palmer reaction at full-time sums up Chelsea frustrations in Nottingham Forest draw | OneFootball

The Blues winning streak ends as the international break begins

Cole Palmer’s reaction as Chris Kavanagh blew the full-time whistle was to collapse immediately to the turf. That said everything.

Chelsea will wonder how they did not win this game, even if it was Nottingham Forest who almost nicked it - twice - at the death.

The 1-1 scoreline of this draw at home to 10-man Forest does little to tell the full story of a match which the Blues dominated.

Enzo Maresca’s side came into it on the back of five straight wins, and with 16 goals in their last four games. There had been no struggle for form in recent weeks. Stamford Bridge expected, then, even though only one of Chelsea's four most recent meetings with Forest had ended in victory.

Cole Palmer was a picture of frustration at full-time

REUTERS

There were louds shrieks of anguish from the home support during 13 minutes of second-half stoppage time when Joao Felix, then Palmer, and then Christopher Nkunku squandered chances to win the game for the Blues. The winner never came.

But Maresca is performance-driven in his analysis of his team, and he will know that the failure to win at Stamford Bridge was a slight only on one aspect of their play: finishing.

Chelsea had 22 shots, plenty of them coming from the omnipresent Palmer and from Noni Madueke. The latter was bound to find the net eventually after a string of close misses and duly did as he slid the Blues back level after they had conceded the opener to Chris Wood from a set-piece.

Still Chelsea could not net the all-important second, even when the visitors were reduced to 10 men when James Ward-Prowse cynically stopped Nicolas Jackson counter-attacking by collapsing onto the ball and handling it, earning a second yellow.

Robert Sanchez had little to do before a huge double save in injury time

Bradley Collyer/PA Wire

Here was a halting of momentum for the Blues, who did give up too many chances to Forest but in a game they should on balance have won. Forest remain somewhat of a bogey team for the Blues.

Chelsea went into the September international break on the back of a 1-1 draw where they deserved to win — against Crystal Palace — and will do so again for the October international break. Maresca will have had to cool down a frustrated dressing room.

These are early days for Chelsea under the Italian, though, and there was no shortage of attacking will or creativity about their display. Jadon Sancho and Madueke were outstanding out wide, targeting full-backs Ola Aina and Alex Moreno and running at them — and then past them.

And for the most part, the Blues defended just as they attacked: well enough to win most matches. This was just one of those afternoons. A point more than they had beforehand, sure, but a performance befitting of victory without the result to match.