Mauricio Pochettino did warn that it will take Chelsea a while to really think about how much they have cost.
Though he might not have expected more – and humiliating – evidence to support his dampening expectations that were coming so soon.
A day after Chelsea’s spending under their new owners crossed the £1bn mark following the arrival of Cole Palmer from Manchester City for £42.5m, Nottingham Forest arrived at Stamford Bridge and departed with their first here since 1995.
As they have played under Pochetttino, and unsurprisingly, Chelsea have been the dominant side all along.
But they made one big mistake, clinically punished by one of Forest’s own summer signings, substitute Anthony Elanga, and failed to make the most of the promising situations they had created themselves. A bad combination.
The best of those was for Nicolas Jackson, who could only produce a miss-of-the-season contender from the six-foot area, somehow retrieving Raheem Sterling’s cut over an unguarded net.
It was a great chance to draw level late and summed up Chelsea’s ruthlessness – or lack thereof – against Steve Cooper’s side, who defended stubbornly to protect their hard-earned lead.
In the end, Chelsea ran out of ideas.
The first half was full of near misses for both sides, but especially for Chelsea, a sign of things to come.
The pattern started just two minutes after Nicolas Jackson passed up the chance to shoot, but Ben Chilwell crossed for the in-form Raheem Sterling.
He seemed all set for a simple tap, until Ola Aina appeared and Forest came to the rescue with a brilliantly timed, last-ditch challenge.
A few more equally dangerous situations followed that almost led to chances for Jackson, the second after another teasing ball from Chilwell’s left.
Later in the half, he got a throw from Sterling’s right, but failed to connect with the winger’s cross.
Before that, Conor Gallagher, still at Chelsea after Tottenham’s interest didn’t quite materialize into a move at the deadline, drove forward and fired his weaker left foot just wide of the top corner.
Enzo Fernandez was also off target with a tame curling iron and Jackson’s touch ran him wide allowing Joe Worrall to come across and block his shot.
The half ended in familiar fashion for Chelsea, with Chilwell clearing down the left and cross, but the ball narrowly evaded Sterling.
Forest’s threat during the half mainly stemmed from set pieces. Twice in five minutes they threatened.
From the first free kick that fell deep into the penalty area, Chelsea failed to clear and Worrall was unable to suppress his volley, sending his shot well over the goal line.
The second chance fell to a much more likely goalscorer, Taiwo Awoniyi, but his acrobatic volley could only go wide.
Early in the second half Forest finally had an open game opportunity and they scored.
They got some help from Chelsea. Gallagher and Caicedo failed to control the ball in midfield and the former was only able to play a pass to Awoniyi under pressure rather than a teammate.
The Forest striker cleverly slipped the ball through Thiago Silva’s legs to put Elanga through and he put Forest ahead and scored his first goal since his summer transfer from Manchester United.
For Chelsea, it was more of a repeat of the first half.
Reaching the nameline for yet another draw, Chilwell saw his low cross cleared out before Jackson was put in what looked like a promising position, only to take a touch that outweighed Forest’s chances of keeping him out him to score.
Turning to deadline day, Pochettino signed Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke off his bench and the former quickly got the Chelsea crowd off their seats with a pair of quick feet on the edge of the box and his willingness to run with the ball. When he was in possession, they felt that something could happen. Or hoped anyway. Chelsea needed something as the game entered the last twenty minutes.
Nearly everything played out deep in Forest’s half as Sterling dribbled to the nameline and pulled the ball back.
Jackson appeared to have the simplest task, with Matt Turner grounded after coming out to try and cut the corner as Sterling raced through.
But when he fell back, Jackson could only lift the ball over the crossbar and that’s how close Chelsea were to getting a point.
(TagsToTranslate)dailymail