Nottingham Forest 1 Chelsea 3

Gianluca Vialli can start to focus again on the glittering Premiership prize but Forest's season gets ever bleaker.

Ron Atkinson's struggling side battled gallantly against Chelsea's title-chasers. But it was an uphill task after their defence sprung another leak in the fourth minute.

Forest bounced back from Mikael Forssell's opener, his first in the Premiership, but they didn't have the strength or craft to match the visitors. Bjarne Goldbaek was on target twice for the Blues although Pierre van Hooijdonk offered a brief glimmer of hope before the break.

But Chelsea are finding their form again and the return of Tore Andre Flo for his first game since a knee operation was cause for double celebration.

Forest trod cautiously back onto the turf where a fortnight earlier Manchester United had plundered eight goals to stress the gulf in quality between the top and bottom of the Premiership.

Ever-optimistic boss Ron Atkinson had called the hammering a "one-off of unbelievable proportions" but when Forssell made Forest pay for more shambolic defending with the game barely under way it seemed very believable.

Chelsea came out strutting like London aristocrats on an exhibition tour of the provinces. The home team couldn't get the ball for the first three minutes as Vialli's men zipped passes from wing to wing.

When Forest did get a kick a one-two between van Hooijdonk and Jean-Claude Darcheville broke down and they were made to pay. Ed de Goey launched a ball onto Forest's defence, they dithered, left it to each other and the young Finn, who was back home sitting exams this week, pounced.

He collected the ball, side-stepped Dave Beasant and slotted the ball into an empty net. Moments later Gianfranco Zola could have doubled the visitors' lead when a Forest clearance ricocheted into his path inside the penalty area but the little Italian dragged his left-foot effort across the face of goal and wide.

Here we go again, thought the City Ground faithful, but their team rallied in spirited fashion. Darcheville volleyed over and van Hooijdonk headed wide and, just when the balance of power appeared to have shifted, Chelsea struck again, this time from a right-wing corner.

A quick break from Dan Petrescu and Albert Ferrer, back after a knee injury, won the corner and from Zola's kick Marcel Desailly flicked on to Goldbaek who did the rest from close range.

Van Hooijdonk gave Forest hope with his fifth of the season, a goal which makes him the club's top Premiership scorer despite missing a huge chunk of the campaign in a sulk. The Dutchman latched onto a through-ball from Steve Stone and coolly clipped his finish over the advancing keeper de Goey six minutes before the break.

Forest kept going although they needed a top class save from Beasant in the second half to stay in the game.

The veteran keeper thrust out a hand to stop Goldbaek's piercing right-foot shot after a sweeping Chelsea move. De Goey was rarely troubled even when Leboeuf generously played everyone onside in the closing stages allowing van Hooijdonk acres of space to pick out Darcheville in front of goal.

His timid pass was too close to recovering defender Desailly, however, and the Frenchman tidied up the situation. Goldbaek claimed his second, when Beasant failed to hold a shot from Flo, back from the bench for his first game since December, and with it condemned Forest to their sixth home defeat of the season.

Teams

Nottm Forest: Beasant, Jean, Quashie (Porfirio 70), Rogers, Chettle, Stone, Johnson (Gemmill 89), Bonalair, Darcheville (Shipperley 86), Palmer, Van Hooijdonk.

Subs Not Used: Crossley, Hjelde.

Booked: Quashie, Palmer.

Goals: Van Hooijdonk 39.

Chelsea: De Goey, Petrescu (Newton 45), Babayaro, Leboeuf, Desailly, Goldbaek, Ferrer, Lambourde, Zola (Flo 61), Morris, Forssell (Nicholls 86).

Subs Not Used: Hitchcock, Terry.

Booked: Morris.

Goals: Forssell 6, Goldbaek 25, 83.

Att: 26,351

Ref: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).