Chelsea start ‘unacceptable’ says McFarlane after Forest defeat

Interim boss Calum McFarlane says Chelsea were “nowhere near” the level required in parts of their 3-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest.

It was a fourth home defeat in a row for Chelsea against a Nottingham Forest side that made eight changes from the team that beat Aston Villa 1-0 in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final.

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Conceding within two minutes, the Blues never recovered, going 3-0 down before Joao Pedro grabbed a late consolation goal.

Speaking after the match, McFarlane said he was “really disappointed with the result” and that his team “never got to our level”.

“In the first 15 minutes we were nowhere near the level we needed to be at,” admitted the Chelsea boss. “The early goal was a bit of a suckerpunch and we didn’t seem to really recover from that moment. It was a freebie one at the back post, we know that they like to cross to the back post and we needed to defend that moment better.

“I just don’t think we recovered from that moment well enough, and when we did recover, we had our moments – Enzo (Fernandez) hits the post, Cole (Palmer) misses the penalty, Joao (Pedro’s) offside goal. When you start that badly you need those moments to go your way, to give you a chance to fight back into the game but ultimately the first 15 minutes were not acceptable.”

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Chelsea face a tough final three games to try and salvage something from the season, with Champions League qualification looking unlikely.

The interim manager also confirmed that youngster Jesse Derry, who was making his Premier League debut before a crunching collision with Zach Abbott saw him taken off the pitch on a stretcher, was displaying “positive signs”, although he had been taken to hospital as a precaution.