Nottingham Forest and Chelsea both know that they can guarantee European football next season with a victory in their final confrontation of the season in the midlands on Sunday.
Any other result and it becomes risky.
Fifth place Chelsea (19-9-9, 66 points) and seventh place Forest (19-10-8, 65 points) are two of the four teams that enter the day separated by a single point.
But fourth place Newcastle welcomes Everton and sixth place Aston Villa Visit Manchester United. Newcastle and Aston Villa are both favored by the odds.
Up to eight English clubs could reach Europe if Chelsea won its UEFA conference league final against Real Betis next Wednesday. But only the first six are guaranteed, only the first five obtaining a place in the UEFA Champions League.
Despite these issues, the director of Chelsea, Enzo Maresca, insisted that the atmosphere around training was a routine.
“When you join Chelsea, you feel the pressure of the first day,” he said. “You don’t need to play this kind of game to feel more pressure or less pressure. It’s a club where you have to win matches and we have won a lot this season, but we need another and it’s the most important.”
Chelsea lost its previous European pointer to Newcastle 2-0 two weeks ago before bolishing with a 1-0 victory at Manchester United on the winner of the 71st minute of Marc Cucurella.
The forest has also managed considerable turbulence to stretching.
Many reports indicate that Nuno Espirito Santo could soon be dismissed by the owner Evangelos Marinankis after the two had an altercation of the sidelines after a 2-2 home draw in Leicester City on May 11.
A post-match club statement said the altercation concerned Espirito Santo’s decision to allow Taiwo Awoniyi to try to play an abdominal injury that finally forced him to go out at 83 minutes.
The forest rebounded with a 2-1 victory at West Ham on the goals of Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic. And now, Espirito Santo insists that the final final will be played in tribute to Awoniyi, which has only one goal of this campaign, but scored 16 in the previous two seasons to help cement the Premier League of Forest.
“We are going to play again for T. He will not be with us. It was a big problem that happened to him and it is in our mind,” said Espirito Santo. “We want to see him completely healthy and join the group, so it’s still going to be a game for T. for T, for us, for the fans, for the city, for everyone. But we just play the game.”
– field level media
