Chelsea look like a broken club, according to Your Site pundit Jamie Carragher.
The Blues were booed off by their own fans at Stamford Bridge after a heavily-rotated Nottingham Forest side, which is fighting Premier League relegation, handed Chelsea a sixth-straight league defeat.
The 3-1 result was a shock, considering Forest boss Vitor Pereira had made eight changes to his line-up ahead of their Europa League semi-final second leg with Aston Villa on Thursday.
But Chelsea, whose FA Cup semi-final win at Wembley last time out appeared to have shaken off the miserable form which cost Liam Rosenior his job, were behind after 97 seconds, two down after 15 minutes and conceded a third just seven minutes after half-time. A Joao Pedro stoppage-time overhead was nothing more than a consolation.
Chelsea, being managed by inexperienced interim boss Calum McFarlane, are ninth in the Premier League, 10 points off fifth-place Villa in the final Champions League qualifying spot - a position they can no longer reach with three games to play.
A Villa Europa League win and fifth-place finish for Unai Emery's side could still bring Champions League football to the side which finishes sixth in the Premier League. Chelsea are four points off Bournemouth who currently hold sixth - but they are in serious doubt of securing any European football at all for next season.
"It's shocking and it comes from the top," said Carragher.
"There's five or six really top players on the pitch today and they've been beaten by Nottingham Forest's B team.
"Less than 12 months ago, they were taking PSG to the cleaners.
"There's no connection between the players and the staff, the players and the fans.
"In some ways, it's a good thing because it tells you that football isn't just all about spending money, buying players and this revolving door.
"It's about creating togetherness and there's nothing there. They look like a broken football club right now."
Carragher elaborated further on Monday Night Football, saying: "For that type of expenditure [on players], they should be challenging for the league and going close and going to the latter stages of the Champions League.
"We're talking about a team that won it twice in the last 15 or 20 years so they're no minnows - they're a big club in European football.
"I said a few years ago that players have got to stop signing for Chelsea. I still stand by it, but it wasn't about the individual players and that I've got something against Chelsea.
"My point is if you're continually buying and selling players, you can never create a connection as a team. You've got to go through things together.
"They buy two wingers every year, so the two they've bought the year before, how do they feel? You can't go into a club and be amazing straight away - you have to build something and grow as a group with a manager and players. This is a continual conveyer belt.
"If I was a young player, why would I sign for Chelsea? They'd give me 12 months and if I'm not amazing, they'll go and sign someone else.
"How do you build a connection between players, fans and staff? It's not there."
Interim Chelsea boss Calum McFarlane labelled his side's first 15 minutes as "unacceptable" - the same word Rosenior used to describe their previous Premier League performance in a 3-0 loss at Brighton, which cost him his job.
"Really disappointed with the performance, disappointed with the result, I don't think we ever got to our level today that we know we're capable of," he said.
"I thought the first 15 minutes we were nowhere near the level we needed to be. The early goal was a bit of a sucker punch and we didn't seem to really recover from that moment.
"It was a three vs one at the back post. We know that they like to cross to the back post, we know that the No 9 likes to peel to the back post and we should defend that moment better. Really disappointing. I thought we defended that moment really well [against] Leeds at Wembley and I just don't think we recovered from that moment well enough.
"When we did recover and we had moments, Enzo hits the post, Cole misses a penalty, Joao's offside goal... when you start that badly, you need those moments to go your way, to give you a chance to fight back into the game.
"The first 15 minutes was unacceptable."
However, McFarlane added that he remains optimistic the team can still finish the season strongly.
"I know the group, I've known them for a little while now and they are driven, they want what's best for themselves, they want what's best for this club and we're going to do everything we can to try and win every single game we can from now to the end of the season," he said.
Joao Pedro admitted he felt sorry for Chelsea supporters after the defeat to Forest extended their desperate run.
"From the beginning we conceded too early which made it really difficult to turn the game around," said Pedro. "We need to find a way not to make these mistakes every game.
"This is the Premier League. If you concede very early, it's difficult to come back. Everyone needs to look at themselves, me included, to find a way to do better. I feel sorry for the fans. We need to see where we can improve.
"Everyone needs to step up, me included. We always talk to each other to find a way to win games. Last week we beat Leeds, this week it didn't happen. We need to find a way to be consistent.
"I think the motivation is always there. We still need to fight for every point, every game and in the end, we can see what we can achieve."
