LONDON: Nottingham Forest gave their Premier League survival hopes a shot in the arm with a 1-1 draw against Chelsea, whose troubles on the road continued.

Forest had already beaten Liverpool and Tottenham at the City Ground this season and turned in another impressive performance against one of the big boys.

After falling behind to Raheem Sterling’s opener against the run of play, they put in a fine second-half display which was rewarded with Serge Aurier’s equaliser just after the hour.

On the balance of the game, Steve Cooper’s men arguably deserved to win as Morgan Gibbs-White hit the crossbar, but this will give them great encouragement in their bid to beat the drop this season.

Chelsea did at least stop a fourth away defeat in a row but they will require a vast improvement if they are to close the seven-point gap on the top four.

Spurs upset

Tottenham’s Premier League top-four hopes suffered a blow after second-half goals from Emiliano Buendia and Douglas Luiz fired Aston Villa to a 2-0 win.

World Cup finalists Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero were back for Spurs, but the former was at fault for Buendia’s opener and Luiz was able to wrap up the points with a fine 73rd-minute finish.

It extended Unai Emery’s unbeaten record against Tottenham to four games and inflicted more misery on Antonio Conte’s side, who have conceded first in their last 10 matches and now dropped to fifth in the Premier League.

Spurs struggled to create chances throughout, creating just 0.57 expected goals (xG), and were booed off after a third home defeat from their last five games.

##########