Chelsea boss Graham Potter admits they weren’t at their best for Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest.
Forest right-back Serge Aurier showed terrific composure to cancel out Raheem Sterling’s goal with a fine equaliser.
Potter said, “It was overall below par for us. You have to credit Forest, they did what they did well. We didn’t do well enough when we had control. Not easy to create against Forest because they can defend deep and attack spaces well. We can improve that. We suffered in the second half so in the end it’s a performance we’re not happy with, we have to accept the point but we are disappointed.
“It’s always disappointing to concede how we did, watching the game we weren’t in control at that point anyway. As much as I’m disappointed with the goal that’s not the reason we dropped points, our overall performance wasn’t good. We have to be honest and try to improve.
“The substitutes came on and helped us. [Mateo] Kovacic gave us more control in midfield and Hakim [Ziyech] had some good contributions. Performances from subs was positive, [Conor] Gallagher was unlucky with the chance so there were some things but we’re disappointed.”
On top four hopes: “It’s always tough because you have a lot of big teams with lots of top players and coaches. We need to focus on the next match but clearly we have a long way to go.”
