Report By Dr Talal osman

Nottingham Forest surged six points clear of the Premier League relegation zone thanks to a stunning 3-1 win over out-of-form Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, whose hopes of a top-five finish ended.

Vitor Pereira's heavily rotated Forest side extended their unbeaten run in the league to seven games, and made it three wins on the spin, with a superb performance.

Forest went 2-0 up inside the first 15 minutes courtesy of Taiwo Awoniyi's header and an Igor Jesus penalty, before Cole Palmer missed a spot-kick at the other end.

Awoniyi made it 3-0 from substitute Morgan Gibbs-White's assist, though the playmaker was later forced off with a head injury, marking a cause for concern ahead of Forest’s UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg against Aston Villa on Thursday.

Joao Pedro's bicycle kick in second-half stoppage time snapped Chelsea's long goal drought, but the Blues have now lost six successive league games and sit ninth on 48 points, four points off the top six, while Forest stay 16th, now on 42 points.

How the match unfolded

Forest needed just 97 seconds to take the lead through Awoniyi, who, on his 100th appearance for the club, headed in at the back post after Dilane Bakwa got the better of Marc Cucurella.

Enzo Fernandez hit the base of the right post in the 11th minute, and the Blues found themselves in more trouble soon after.

Malo Gusto was penalised for pulling Awoniyi's shirt in the box, with referee Anthony Taylor awarding the foul after a VAR review, and Jesus fired down the middle from the penalty spot to double Forest's lead.

Chelsea were then awarded a penalty on the stroke of half-time following a clash of heads between debutant Jesse Derry and Forest's Zach Abbott, with both players receiving extensive treatment before going off.

The delay did not help Palmer, though, as his weak effort was saved by goalkeeper Matz Sels.

Chelsea’s misery was compounded seven minutes into the second half as Awoniyi tapped into an unguarded net after latching onto Gibbs-White’s centre.

Gibbs-White and Chelsea 'keeper Robert Sanchez were involved in a nasty collision that resulted in them both being forced off with head injuries, before Joao Pedro saw a goal disallowed for offside.

Chelsea, though, at least ended a 634-minute wait for a league goal in style when the Brazilian brilliantly struck home in the third minute of stoppage time.