Chelsea winning run ends as Nottingham Forest grab draw at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea’s winning run in the Premier League was brought to an end by 10-man Nottingham Forest who battled to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge to maintain their own strong start to the season.

Enzo Maresca’s side were chasing a fourth victory in a row to shore up their place in the top four but needed a brilliant solo equaliser from Noni Madueke to cancel out Chris Wood’s goal early in the second half.

Thereafter Chelsea bombarded the visitors and looked likely to go on and win when James Ward-Prowse was dismissed for handling the ball as Nicolas Jackson threatened to race through on goal.

But Forest, who also lost England forward Morgan Gibbs-White to injury, survived a frantic 13 minutes of stoppage time, during which goalkeepers Robert Sanchez and Matz Sels produced remarkable saves, to leave with a point.

Maresca’s second string had outclassed Gent here in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, but as has become customary this season all XI were dropped to make way for what the head coach clearly considers to be his strongest side.

That meant a return on the right wing for Madueke, who went close with the best chance of a quiet opening 25 minutes when firing over from the edge of the box.

The game came to life in the final five minutes of the half as first Sanchez was called on to beat away a fizzing drive from Forest’s Murillo, then Cole Palmer hit a post with a shot that caught Aina and squeezed seemingly in slow motion through three defenders before finally landing in the grateful arms of Sels.

The chance of the half arguably fell to Ryan Yates, though. He would have celebrated giving Forest a lead on the stroke of the interval had Levi Colwill not thrown out a leg to divert his effort from 12 yards over the bar.

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