Chelsea’s winning run in the Premier League was brought to an end by 10-man Nottingham Forest who battled to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge to maintain their own strong start to the season.
Enzo Maresca’s side were chasing a fourth victory in a row to shore up their place in the top four but needed a brilliant solo equaliser from Noni Madueke to cancel out Chris Wood’s goal early in the second half.
Thereafter Chelsea bombarded the visitors and looked likely to go on and win after James Ward-Prowse was dismissed for handling the ball as Nicolas Jackson threatened to race through on goal.
But Forest, who also lost England forward Morgan Gibbs-White to injury, survived a frantic 13 minutes of stoppage time, during which goalkeepers Robert Sanchez (Chelsea) and Matz Sels produced remarkable saves, to leave with a point.
Maresca’s second string had outclassed Gent here in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, but as has become customary this season all XI were dropped to make way for what the head coach clearly considers to be his strongest side.
That meant a return on the right wing for Madueke, who went close with the best chance of a quiet opening 25 minutes when firing over from the edge of the box.
The game came to life in the final five minutes of the half as first Sanchez was called on to beat away a fizzing drive from Forest’s Murillo, then Cole Palmer hit a post with a shot that caught Aina and squeezed, seemingly in slow motion, through three defenders before finally landing in the grateful arms of Sels.
The chance of the half arguably fell to Ryan Yates, though. He would have celebrated giving Forest a lead on the stroke of the interval had Levi Colwill not thrown out a leg to divert his effort from 12 yards over the bar.
It had been a steely, disciplined half from Forest but their goal came against the run of play. Jackson tried to run beyond Forest’s last man, Ward-Prowse, and in the process fouled him.
Ward-Prowse hit the free-kick deep, from which Nikola Milenkovic peeled away to lose Malo Gusto and nodded it back centrally. As the ball dropped in the six-yard box, Wood darted in front of Moises Caicedo and toed it beyond the reach of Sanchez.
Forest’s lead lasted all of eight minutes. Madueke had not scored in the league since hitting a hat-trick against Wolves in August but he drew Chelsea level with unerring accuracy, collecting Palmer’s pass and cutting inside to send a shot inside the far post behind the unsighted Sels.
Forest then lost Gibbs-White to injury, the England forward going off in the second half after a strong but fair challenge from Gusto, before their task became harder still with Ward-Prowse’s dismissal.
Sels produced an outstanding double stop from Palmer before tensions boiled over into a melee involving virtually all 22 players plus substitutes when Neco Williams shoved Marc Cucurella off the pitch.
Joao Felix headed wide from Pedro Neto’s cross at the start of a breathless added period as Maresca turned to his gilded bench, then at the other end Sanchez brilliantly denied Williams.
Sels was again Forest’s hero when he dived to turn away Christopher Nkunku’s bullet header, then Sanchez perhaps bettered it with a stop of his own from Jota Silva.