'Abysmal… shambles' – ESPN pundit says Chelsea 'got away with it' against Nottingham Forest

“This is aways a tricky one because I can’t disagree with Sam that the changes that were made at half time made a difference. But are we going to go glass half full of half empty? You know the team he put on the field [in the first half] was abysmal, it was a shambles,” pundit Steve Nicol said.

“I mean players that have never played with each other. And in some ways you can say they really got away with it. To make three changes at half time – it wasn’t going to get any worse for Chelsea than it was in the first half.”

You can see their discussion here and work out whether you think they’re being too harsh:

It’s true that that was a shocking team – but what choice did Maresca really have? We’re missing a lot of players, and he’s got to do what he can to try and limit the minutes of the likes of Moises Caicedo. He took a risk and it paid off, and hopefully our teams in the weeks to come will look stronger.

One thing we can’t deny, however, is how bad that first half was…

In other news…

One of the changes being discussed by the ESPN crew was the addition of Marc Guiu, and they weren’t the only ones to recognise his impact. On Match of the Day, Alan Shearer had some positive words too, which you can read here.