Chelsea will look to follow up their victory against Bournemouth last time out, as the Blues face Nottingham Forest at The City Ground. 

Goals from Kai Havertz and Mason Mount ensured Chelsea claimed all three points at Stamford Bridge, in what was the first game for the Blues in the Premier League since the start of the World Cup break. 

They face a Nottingham Forest side in need of points, with the newly promoted side sitting in the relegation zone, just one point from safety.

  • Graham Potter

Graham Potter spoke to the media ahead of the game, and revealed the extent of Chelsea's injuries problems: (Quotes from 90min.com)

"If you go back to the Newcastle game, we had no Kepa, no Reece, no Wesley [Fofana], no Ben Chilwell, we lost Marc Cucurella with illness overnight, lost Ruben Loftus-Cheek after two minutes, had no [N’Golo] Kante, lost Cesar Azpilicueta after 20 minutes, and also had no Raheem Sterling. That was simply the period we were in, and we still have quite a few guys that are out."

Reece James picked up his injury in Chelsea's victory over Bournemouth during the week, after recently returning from an injury picked up prior to the World Cup in Qatar:

"But that is the challenge of being in multiple competitions; there were multiple games in a short space of time with the World Cup coming up. Something I reflected upon during the break was when Ben, for example, gets injured, the effect that has on everyone. They are looking and thinking, ‘could I be next? Could I miss the World Cup?’ So it was difficult."

 

"Our job is to try to get as many people back as we can. It’s been a real tough period, as challenging as there has been in my time as a coach. But we’re Chelsea and people don’t want to hear those reasons/excuses. We have got to get on with it and try our best to find the answers."

The Chelsea boss also commented on the performance of Denis Zakaria against the Cherries, with the Swiss having limited game time since arriving from Juventus. 

"Whenever Denis has played, he’s not let us down. He played in the Champions League against Zagreb and scored, so he’s shown his quality. I’ve said before, he has had to be patient because we have some good options in the midfield.

"It has to be remembered we didn’t lose for the first few games so it was hard for him to get that opportunity. But he has remained professional, worked really hard and it’s why he got his reward [against Bournemouth] with a decent performance and a contribution to a win."

Potter also gave an update on the fitness of Mateo Kovacic, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy ahead of the game against Forest.

"Both of those guys will be back (Kovacic and Ziyech). Mendy we are not sure, we’ll have to see in the next few days. He has a problem with his bone [around his shoulder] that he picked up at the World Cup. He may still need a bit of time."

Chelsea face the Reds in a 4:30pm Kick-off at the City Ground on New Years Day, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League.