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Nottingham Forest boost survival hopes with Chelsea draw

Nottingham Forest gave their Premier League survival hopes a shot in the arm with a 1-1 draw against Chelsea, whose troubles on the road continued. Forest had already beaten Liverpool and Tottenham at the City Ground this season and turned in another impressive performance against one of the big boys. After falling behind to Raheem Sterling's opener against the run of play, they put in a fine second-half display which was rewarded with Serge Aurier's equaliser just after the hour. On the balance of the game, Steve Cooper's men arguably deserved to win as Morgan Gibbs-White hit the crossbar, but this will give them great encouragement in their bid to beat the drop this season. Chelsea did at least stop a fourth away defeat in a row but they will require a vast improvement if they are to close the seven-point gap on the top four. Forest's impressive performance was soured, though, by alleged homophobic chanting from the Forest fans towards the travelling support. Having seen off Liverpool in October and Spurs in the Carabao Cup, there was early optimism for another scalp after the way they started as their pace troubled Chelsea.

Forest fans' homophobic chant condemned by LGBTQ+ groups

Chelsea's official LGBTQ+ supporters group has condemned homophobic chanting from Nottingham Forest fans. Offensive chants were heard at regular intervals during Sunday's Premier League match at the City Ground, which was shown live on Sky Sports.

Conte argues Spurs lumbered with unrealistic expectations after loss to Villa

Antonio Conte has cast doubt over Tottenham's Premier League top-four hopes and tried to address unrealistic expectations after his side were booed off following a damaging 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa. Second-half goals from Emiliano Buendia and Douglas Luiz gave the visitors all three points to make it a sorry start to the new year for Spurs. Tottenham conceded first for the 10th fixture in a row and have dropped to fifth in the table following Manchester United's win at Wolves. Even though Conte guided the club into the Champions League last season, he described that achievement as a "miracle" and insisted he will continue to be realistic with the club. "I know what is the reality because I am the coach," he said. "The club knows very well what are my thoughts on the situation. The situation was very clear. I continue to work and to improve and to help you to improve the club, to create a solid foundation and then to develop. "You have to know that there are clubs who can invest £200m or £300m and others with different policies and I repeat you have to respect the policy. "The policy has to be very clear with all people otherwise we created a situation that's not positive for the environment to create expectations that are not realistic, honestly. "I was expecting this moment. Now we have to start to fight strong, because the situation in this league you can slip quickly. "If you ask me if I'm scared, I'm not scared. I believe in my work, I believe in these players, but don't ask me for things I cannot promise you." Conte arrived at Spurs last November and, despite an inconsistent opening few months, managed to help them overturn Arsenal in the race for the top four last season.