Nottingham Forest surprises Chelsea with a lightning goal.

Nottingham Forest staged a true revolution at Stamford Bridge, taking a giant step towards survival in the Premier League by surprising Chelsea with a blistering start that revealed a lethal duo on the scoreboard. In a match where the visitors were unafraid to change their starting eleven, leaving out names like Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson, and Nikola Milenkovic, what was seen was a Tricky Trees team determined to make their mark in the London stronghold.

Barely two minutes in, Taiwo Awoniyi shook off the pressure and opened the scoring with a powerful header, following a pinpoint cross from Dilane Bakwa. The early goal was a real shock for Chelsea, who saw goalkeeper Robert Sanchez stretched out in the play, unable to prevent the goal. The Blues’ response almost came immediately, with Enzo Fernandez taking a curling shot that hit the post, sending shivers through the stands and demonstrating that the home team still had the legs to react.

Cole Palmer, one of England’s hopes on the field, was active and tempting, but the lack of support from his teammates ended up taking away his patience. The worst was yet to come for the young England international: with less than 20 minutes played, Chelsea found themselves two goals down. Awoniyi was once again the protagonist, this time being pulled down inside the box by Malo Gusto, in a foul that referee Anthony Taylor decided to punish after a VAR review. Igor Jesus was unshaken and converted the penalty coolly, deceiving the goalkeeper and extending Nottingham Forest’s lead.

After the second goal, Chelsea tried to respond and improved their performance, but still struggled to effectively dominate the attacking zone. The pressure is immense for the Blues, who face the real threat of suffering their sixth consecutive defeat in the Premier League — an unprecedented occurrence in the club’s history. The task for Thomas Tuchel and his players has now become almost Herculean if they wish to avoid this dark record.

This result places Nottingham Forest in a very comfortable position in the fight for survival, demonstrating that the Midlands team is not to be taken lightly, even with a revamped squad focused on the Europa League semi-final against Aston Villa, scheduled for Thursday.

Follow all the real-time updates and complete analysis of the match here, where Nottingham Forest demonstrated that, when they want to, they can be a genuine thorn in the side of England’s top teams.

This article first appeared on Apito Final.