Premier League: No one can stop Nottingham Forest sensation

In the script for the start of the 2024/2025 Premier League season, several events could not be predicted. We can think of Liverpool’s supremacy in the championship despite the loss of their strong man Jürgen Klopp who was perfectly replaced by Arne Slot. We can also be surprised by the excellent transfer of Chelsea under the orders of Vincenzo Maresca. Manchester City’s complicated start to the season was also surprising since the Sky Blues are in a surprising sixth place. However, the biggest surprise of the current year is Nottingham Forest and quite clearly. A historic club in English football which won the Championship in 1978 and the Champion Club Cups in 1979 and 1980, Nottingham Forest has nevertheless experienced complicated times. Since their last relegation from the Premier League in 1999, the Reds have experienced almost 20 years of crossing the desert with even a three-season stint in League One (third division). Promoted in 2022, Nottingham Forest then experienced two complicated seasons with narrowly snatched positions in 2023 (16th) and 2024 (17th). As the 2024/2025 season approached, it seemed complicated to imagine Nuno Espírito Santo’s team doing better than playing for survival and yet it happened.

Arriving at the head of the team in December 2023, Nuno Espírito Santo allowed him to maintain his position and was able to implement his ideas. Already capable in the past of good results in the Premier League like his cycle between 2017 and 2021 at the head of Wolverhampton (53 victories in 96 matches), the Portuguese technician was revengeful after a failed experience at Tottenham and his departure from ‘Al-Ittihad. Striving to put in place a solid team, capable of suffering and then deploying quickly against, the native of São Tomé and Principe has therefore established a fairly balanced 4-2-3-1 which is surprising this season. Third best defense in the Premier League (19 goals conceded in 19 matches), Nottingham Forest has certainly only scored 26 goals but that does not prevent them from having achieved success. The Forest remain on 5 victories in a row and were thus able to position themselves in third place, three points behind runner-up Arsenal (with one game less on the Gunners), nine lengths behind leader Liverpool and ahead of big names like Chelsea (4th). ), Newcastle (5th) and Manchester City (6th).

An iron defense, an icy attack

The success of Nottingham Forest obviously translates into a formidable defensive sector. In goal, Belgian goalkeeper and former Strasbourg goalkeeper Matz Sels is simply excellent. With 8 clean sheets since the start of the season, he has done better than all the other goalkeepers and is narrowly ahead of Jordan Pickford (Everton) and David Raya (Arsenal). Its success is also linked to the good work of its central defense. Arriving this summer from Fiorentina, Serbian defender Nikola Milenković has taken on another dimension in the Premier League. The 26-year-old forms a formidable duo with the Brazilian Murillo (22) who is particularly popular. It’s simple, Paris Saint-Germain is attentive to its situation just like FC Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, Chelsea and Juventus. The left-hander trained at Corinthians already sees a price of between 60 and 80 million euros associated with him. Added to this are two valuable players in the creation, namely Eliott Anderson who arrived this summer from Newcastle for 41.2 million euros (5 assists in 18 Premier League matches) and boss Morgan Gibbs-White (3 goals and 3 assists in 15 games) who has continued to improve since 2022 and his arrival from Wolverhampton.

The two other Nottingham Forest executives who stand out are obviously Anthony Elanga (3 goals and 3 assists in 19 matches) who brings a lot of verticality and percussion, but above all serial scorer Chris Wood (11 goals in 19 matches). At 33, the New Zealand striker seems at the top of his game and currently finds himself sixth top scorer in the Premier League. A great reward for the former Burnley and Newcastle player who is having the best season of his career on an individual and collective level. In any case, there is optimism and Nuno Espirito Santo savored after the 1-0 victory against his former club Tottenham on December 26: “the supporters should rejoice, let’s enjoy it together. No, the ranking doesn’t mean anything, what’s important is how we felt today. The City Groud sang, he was there. That’s what’s beautiful for us, going out into the city, enjoying this moment. The belief is there. But belief does not hide reality. The reality is that we haven’t done anything yet and we have 2 days to recover, rest and face Everton. This is the reality.» Winner again against the Toffees, Nottingham Forest is on solid momentum and intends to continue this Monday against Wolverhampton, another club of Nuno Espirito Santo. The opportunity for the Reds to assert themselves a little more as the sensation team of the Premier League…