Nottingham Forest 0–3 Chelsea: Postecoglou Sacked After Heavy Defeat at the City Ground

Chelsea recorded a convincing 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, but the result was overshadowed by the immediate sacking of manager Ange Postecoglou. The Australian failed to win any of his eight matches in charge, leaving Forest in the relegation zone a sharp decline from their impressive sixth-place finish in the 2024/25 campaign.

Chelsea made several changes to the side that beat Liverpool 2-1 before the international break. Trevoh Chalobah, Roméo Lavia, and Andrey Santos started in place of the injured Benoît Badiashile and Enzo Fernández, with Moisés Caicedo also dropping to the bench for a rest.

Postecoglou likewise rotated his squad, bringing in Oleksandr Zinchenko, Douglas Luiz, Ibrahima Sangaré, Murillo, and Taiwo Awoniyi for Nicolò Savona, Ryan Yates, Dan Ndoye, Jair Cunha, and Chris Wood.

Despite the emphatic scoreline, the underlying numbers told a different story. Forest outperformed Chelsea on expected goals (2.43 to 1.66) but failed to make their dominance count. Morgan Gibbs-White came closest early on, firing just wide from the edge of the box. Chelsea, fielding the youngest starting XI in the Premier League this season, struggled to build rhythm and create clear openings in a largely flat first half.

Everything changed after the break. Caicedo and teenage striker Marc Guiu were introduced at half-time, and the substitutions immediately paid off. In the 48th minute, a superb Pedro Neto cross was nodded in by Josh Achaempong for his first Premier League goal. Neto turned scorer moments later, curling a free-kick into the bottom corner to double Chelsea’s lead by the 51st minute.

Forest continued to press, creating several chances but were denied repeatedly by goalkeeper Robert Sánchez and the woodwork. Their frustration grew, and Chelsea capitalised late on as Reece James sealed the win with a composed volley in the 83rd minute.

The defeat proved to be the final straw for Postecoglou. His dismissal marks the 24th managerial sacking under owner Evangelo Marikanis across his various clubs.

Postecoglou’s 31-day tenure becomes the second-shortest in Premier League history, just shy of Sam Allardyce’s brief spell in 2023.

Sean Dyche is the early favourite to replace him, facing the daunting task of rescuing a Forest side already entrenched in a relegation battle

Line-Ups

Nottingham Forest (5-3-2): Sels; Williams, Milenković, Murillo (Savona 74’), Morato, Zinchenko (Wood 74’); Luiz (Hudson-Odoi 53’), Sangaré, Anderson; Gibbs-White, Awoniyi (Jesus 46’)

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; Gusto, Achaempong (Adarabioyo 81’), Chalobah, Cucurella; James, Lavia (Caicedo 46’); Neto (Estevão 78’), Santos (Gittens 46’), Garnacho (Guiu 46’); Pedro