It was busy. The Forest players, to their credit, were waiting to head back out onto the pitch to celebrating securing European football for the first time in 30 years.
Chelsea, both players and staff, had started to drift back into the dressing room following some prolonged celebrations with our travelling fans. After all, our 1-0 victory had just ensured Champions League nights would return to Stamford Bridge next season.
Levi Colwill, our matchwinner against the Reds, was patted on the back by Moises Caicedo. Malo Gusto and Noni Madueke high-fived staff members on their way back into the changing room. Sporting Directors and Ownership beamed from the pitch into the tunnel. This felt like a big moment for Enzo Maresca’s young squad.
Amongst the chatter and buzz, captain Reece James wandered over. He was on media duties and, as he always does, he delivered some refreshingly honest lines and didn’t hide away his joy at helping Chelsea – his club – return to Europe’s elite.
The defender knew before the game how important a top-five finish would be. He let his team-mates know. And they didn’t disappoint.
For Reece, he was quick to point out how well the Blues had played and expressed his excitement at what’s to come for this team.
‘To secure Champions League football again for this club is an amazing feeling,’ our No.24 said after the game in Nottingham.
‘Coming to Nottingham Forest on the final day needing to get a result, we knew it would be really tough. They’ve had an amazing season, they’re really strong defensively and pose a real threat going forward too.
‘So to hold them at bay, get the goal and secure the three points we needed, it’s just an amazing feeling for us.
‘I really need to shout out my team-mates. Every single player put a monumental shift in, we were there for one another and it’s just such a big result for us.
‘We’ve needed that, everyone being on point from minute one through to the last moment and helping each other out and we showed that. You can’t underestimate how big a performance this was and we’re all just so delighted to have got Champions League football, back where we believe this club belongs.
‘There’s been a lot of outside noise saying that we are too young, too inexperienced to handle the big moments and that we wouldn’t make it. Well, I think we’ve shown that we can.’
While the Premier League has reached its conclusion, and Chelsea have achieved what we set out to do, our season is far from over.
We will quickly recover from this game and dive head first into a Conference League final with Real Betis in Poland on Wednesday.
Having already tasted success in the Champions League and the Europa League, James wants to secure a hat-trick of European trophies by lifting the Conference League title with his team-mates later this week.
‘We will enjoy this win but our focus is already on Real Betis and the Conference League final,’ added the skipper.
‘It’s been a long, tough season. We’ve had dips, we’ve lost and drawn games we probably should have won.
‘But throughout, we’ve dug deep and stuck together and now we are in a position where we could win a European trophy to add to securing Champions League football. That has to be seen as a positive.
‘We have our eyes on the prize for Wednesday now. Everybody wants to win a European trophy and I know what it means for the club, it’s a chance for us to complete the set and we are hungry to do just that.’