Nottingham Forest vs Crystal Palace
There are not many better places to be for a night game than when Forest are playing at the City Ground, we drove up to Nottingham on Monday evening to watch the reds take on Crystal Palace. The last Forest game that we were at was the Fulham game earlier in the month, which saw Forest fall to a 1-0 defeat in a disappointing display in front of an expectant home crowd.
That’s the difference going into this season, the expectation is higher following a strong summer transfer window and it being the third season of Premier League football since the club got promoted and you can feel that inside the ground. So far, that optimism and expectation has been compounded by positive results away from home. 2 wins against Liverpool and Southampton along with two hard-fought and well earned draws against Brighton and Chelsea have helped us up to eleventh in the table going into this game. Home form has been a hot topic of conversation around Nottingham, with the City Ground becoming such a fortress particularly in our first season back in the Premier League, no win at home this year though since 2nd April was definitely a cause for concern and something that needed to be rectified quickly. Monday night’s game presented the perfect opportunity for the reds to do exactly that.
Second half action
As is often the case at Forest, the international break following the draw at Chelsea wasn’t a quiet one. While other clubs would have been quietly preparing for the upcoming fixtures, Forest were awaiting a decision from an independent regulatory commission on potential sanctions for owner Evangelos Marinakis, after he allegedly spat on the floor ‘next to’ referee Josh Smith after the Fulham game. As well as this, Forest were also awaiting another decision which included potential sanctions against manager Nuno Espirito Santo and captain Morgan Gibbs-White following the draw at the Amex where Gibbs-White saw red, sparking ‘ill-tempered’ responses from both managers and the player himself. Marinakis ended up getting a five game stadium ban, Nuno a two game ban, and Gibbs-White got himself an extra game suspension.
The sanctions were seen as excessive to say the least, and were not received well by the club. The fans have already formed an agenda against the Premier League following the PSR and VAR drama of last season, with the common view being that the League have it in for them. So these sanctions only further fractured that relationship. The Premier League anthem has been booed before at the City Ground but never so vehemently as it was on Monday night, the noise completely drowned out any semblance of music.
Without Gibbs-White, Forest turned to Elliot Anderson who signed from Newcastle over the summer and was nicknamed by their fanbase the ‘geordie Maradona’. Since joining Anderson has been excellent, mostly operating in a wide left midfield role or sometimes playing as an 8 alongside Ryan Yates or Ibrahim Sangare. This is the first time we have seen Anderson in the 10 role and the young midfielder lived up to his nickname. He was outstanding on the night, with a pass accuracy of 95%, winning 11 total duels, 6/6 successful dribbles and creating 2 big chances for Chris Wood. His performance was summed up by a dazzling run in the first half where he effortlessly got out of a tight space on the right hand side, evading several Palace players, before moments later ending up on the left with the ball at his feet again where he took on another two players, drove towards goal and forced a save out of Dean Henderson. That felt like the moment where collectively every Forest fan in the stadium thought ‘wow we’ve really got a player here’, similar to when Morgan Gibbs-White first joined the club.
It was Chris Wood who eventually got the winning goal for Forest in the second half on 65 minutes, his speculative shot from outside the box after a poor headed clearance from Trevoh Chalobah ended up in the back of the net after Dean Henderson spilled it. It should have been a save from the England international but based on the pressure Forest had applied during the game, it was a well deserved goal. The subs made by Nuno, particularly taking off Anthony Elanga to bring on the fiery Jota Silva, was key to instilling some vigour into the side and pushing for the win. Jota made Marc Guehi’s life much harder by pressing relentlessly and forcing two corners out of him, showing what he is all about.
Chris Wood scores!
The form that Chris Wood is currently showing is up there with the best attackers in the league. Only Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer and Bryan Mbuemo have scored more than him so far this season. Ironically, Crystal Palace striker Eddie Nketiah was the subject of a £25 million bid from Forest over the summer but ended up joining the Eagles instead after they splashed out £30 million for him. Since making that decision, Nketiah has 0 goals to his name and Forest will be much happier with the option they chose to stick with Chris Wood after just 9 games. It will be intriguing to see if Wood can continue his scintillating form, but at the moment his confidence is sky high and more goals on the horizon look inevitable.
At the back, Forest are also looking good. Milenkovic and Murillo have formed what looks like one of the best centre back partnerships in the league, and we seem to have found the perfect blend. Milenkovic is a Vidic regen, with exceptional defensive qualities, his ability to read the game, dominate strikers and win aerial duels is second to none. Murillo on the other hand is the most exciting defender that I have ever seen at the club, he’s a player that makes you fall in love with football and is capable of the unexpected. Mazy runs, 40 yard cross field passes, and also the strength, speed and ability to time his tackles which makes him a great defender as well. Together they go hand in hand and providing both players stay fit, Forest fans have a really exciting time ahead of them watching these two play next to each other.
Behind them, Matz Sels is also picking up a lot of plaudits and produced another excellent stop from Eberechi Eze’s inventive free kick effort in this game to keep the score at 0-0. Any previous doubts that fans had about the goalkeeping situation have certainly been alleviated following his last two outings after putting in a spectacular performance at Stamford Bridge as well. 3 clean sheets now mean that Forest are joint second for the most clean sheets in the league, behind only Manchester United.
That winning feeling
Chants of ‘Forest are magic, on and off the pitch’ echoed around all 4 stands of the City Ground in the final stages of the game and helped see the players through to victory, and as the full time whistle was blown, it felt so good. Getting our first home win of the season felt like an important step to lift any pressure that may have been building after two draws and a loss so far in front of the home crowd. It adds another precious 3 points to an impressive tally at this stage of the season, moving Forest up to 8th on 13 points. An eagerly anticipated fixture on Friday night looks like it could be tasty, with Leicester City hosting the reds. The Steve Cooper association aside, a local derby (to some) and two teams both desperate to win will make for an exciting game and Forest will be hoping to add to what has already been a positive start with another win.
Written by Joe Horne
