Postecoglou sack swift but not quick enough as Chelsea highlight Forest f*** up

Just 19 minutes separated the final whistle of another defeat for Nottingham Forest and confirmation of the sacking of Ange Postecoglou. It remains unclear what took them so long.

Postecoglou, like the rest of us, would have known what was coming when he looked up to Evangelos Marinakis’s throne above him to see it empty since roughly the hour mark. By the time Chelsea scored their third goal, the Forest owner’s social media minion will have been hovering over the ‘publish’ button of a draft they presumably had saved for at least a fortnight.

Allowing Postecoglou to remain in place through the international break seemed a rare act of benevolence towards a manger on Marinakis’s part. A performance as sloppy and disheartening as any other under Postecoglou highlighted it as another mistake fom Edu and the owner.

It cannot have helped that when backed into a corner, Postecoglou isn’t the kind of character to use reverence to wiggle out of it, as evidenced by his team selection. Forest’s XI showed five changes, while four attacking summer signings worth around £125million – Arnaud Kalimuendo, Omari Hutchinson, Dilane Bakwa or James McAtee – failed even to make the bench. Nuno paid for getting on the wrong side of Edu and Postecoglou was never any more likely to suck up to his line manager.

One of the more eyebrow-raising selections was Taiwo Awoniyi, in for his first competitive minutes of the season. Igor Jesus and Chris Wood returned from international duty weary and achy – Wood felt stiffness in his knee – and, understandably, Awoniyi was rusty.

The centre-forward was gifted a run on goal inside the first minute but his left-foot shot was pulled woefully wide. Chelsea generosity and Forest wastefulness were themes of the first 20 minutes, in which the visitors sloppily gave the ball away in their own half to present clear sights of goal, but Elliott Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White followed Awoniyi in failing to even trouble Robert Sanchez.

Those opportunities lifted the subdued home supporters, the majority already lost to Postecoglou. If the manager had any hope of recovering some of the precious little backing he began with, his players had to take at least one of those chances; Chelsea were never likely to remain as sloppy as they started.

Enzo Maresca would point to a starting XI shorn of his three best players: Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo. The Ecuadorian midfielder was named as a substitute after missing training on Friday, but Caicedo was summoned as part of a triple half-time change from Maresca, while Postecoglou opted only to rotate his centre-forwards.

Maresca’s decisiveness reaped almost immediate dividends. Alejandro Garnacho once again failed to show anything to suggest Ruben Amorim got him all wrong, so he was hooked for Jamie Gittens, whose insertion on the right saw Pedro Neto switch flanks.

It took Neto four minutes to show what he can do that Garnacho cannot: go down the outside and deliver quality from the left. Admittedly, the Portugal winger was offered the space all too willingly by Forest, and Josh Acheampong was seemingly forgotten by the hosts too before he planted a free header past Matz Sels for his first senior goal.

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The importance of scoring first is never knowingly understated in punditry circles, but Forest’s fragility made the cliche as true as it ever was. The hosts had claimed just a single point from losing positions this season. So it was curtains just three minutes later when Chelsea doubled their lead.

Neto again did the damage, the routine he planned with Reece James shortly before execution evidently too clever for Forest. James rolled the ball a yard inside, prompting the Forest wall to crumble, perhaps blinding Sels somewhat, but the keeper’s hands were similarly porous, allowing Neto’s low strike to squeeze through.

If Forest fans were conflicted even slightly by a first-half performance that ought to have seen their side in front at the break, by the 52nd minute, their verdict was clear. Ta-ra, Ange.

The manager was a pained presence on the touchline while his players continued their profligacy in attack. Neco Williams skied a volley before Jesus hit both bar and post from five yards to provide confirmation for Postecoglou – not that it was needed – that this was not his day. And this is not his club.

It is not clear if Marinakis saw those opportunities squandered but he was certainly long gone and presumably on the phone to Postecoglou’s replacement when James buried Chelsea’s third late on.

Postecoglou, like the rest of us, seemed to know what was coming while he lingered lonely in the middle of the pitch while his players performed a half-hearted lap of the centre-circle in appreciation of the few supporters who remained.

Those players, too often guilty of failing on the basics, should not escape their share of the blame and nor should Marinakis and Edu. Appointing a manager mid-season who would inevitably need time and a turnover of players was always an odd choice, while getting into bed with a notoriously impatient owner showed suspect judgement for Postecoglou’s part too.

The end of the error was prompt, but not swift enough.