Chelsea cruise past Nottingham Forest to reach FA Cup fourth round

Chelsea put in a vintage performance worthy of their retro kits and cruised into the FA Cup fourth round after a dominant 2-0 win against Championship side Nottingham Forest.

The impressive Callum Hudson-Odoi opened the scoring for the hosts early on after a delightful team move.

Ross Barkley then doubled the advantage, dabbing home a close-range rebound after another sharp effort from Hudson-Odoi was only parried by goalkeeper Jordan Smith.

Forest had a penalty decision and second-half header from Ryan Yates overturned for offside but they were second best throughout and can have few complaints.

The result maintains Chelsea's 100% FA Cup record against Forest, with five wins from five -- including a 2-0 victory in the third round last season.

It also marks a return to winning ways at home for Frank Lampard's side, who suffered defeats to Bournemouth and Southampton over an inconsistent Christmas period, that also saw fine wins on the road at Tottenham and Arsenal.

"A good performance and pleased to see him high up the pitch, pleased to see him being aggressive in how he gets at people which is what he is there for. He gets his goal with a great strike," Lampard said about Hudson-Odoi after the match.

Lampard added: "It's been an interesting twelve months for him considering how young he is, when you take that into account. Last year everyone was talking about him for different reasons. He gets a terrible injury, he comes back very early and when he did come back there were issues getting him tip top."

The hosts were playing in retro kits to mark the 50th anniversary of their notorious 1970 FA Cup win against Leeds, remembered for its brutal challenges and vicious play.

But there was nothing crude on display 50 years on, with slick interplay from the hosts seeing Pedro spread the ball to Hudson-Odoi early on, who cut in from the right and fired home in some style.

Hudson-Odoi was the architect of Chelsea's second as well, again cutting in from the right and forcing a smart save out of Smith but Barkley was on hand to score in at the back post.

Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images

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Forest were initially awarded a penalty in the first half when 17-year-old Alex Mighten was adjudged to have been brought down by Fiyako Tomori, only for VAR to ultimately rule out the decision after the most marginal of offsides was spotted in the build-up.

Michy Batshuayi had great chances to make it 3-0 either side of the break, first dragging a header wide after a dinked cross from Reece James then completely misjudging a pinpoint cross from Hudson-Odoi.

Barkley also could have increased the lead but his weak header hit the post on the hour.

Forest did have the ball in the net in the second half but Yates' header was correctly ruled out for offside.