Premier, Nottingham Forest wins at Wolverhampton

Nottingham Forest never stops. Wolverhampton wins 3-0 and with their sixth consecutive victory, their record in the Premier League, they join Arsenal in second place in the table, 6 points behind Liverpool, who they will host at the City Ground when the championship resumes on 14 January. In the victory at the Molineux Stadium there is everything that has made Espirito Santo’s team magical this year: a formidable defence, with the Belgian goalkeeper Sels bringing to 9 the season record in the Premier League for matches without conceding a goal with a performance man on the pitch, a unique ability to finish off counterattacks, the way in which the two goals arrived in the first half (the former Morgan Gibbs-White in the 7th minute, Chris Wood in the 44th minute, Taiwo Awoniyi in the 94′). And a sky-high confidence that allows Robin Hood’s city team to do things they didn’t even dream of a year ago. Wolverhampton would have deserved more than the first defeat of the Vitor Pereira era, but Forest are in another dimension at the moment.

the keys

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Gibbs-White’s 1-0 in the 7th minute allows Forest to play the way they have become masters: defending in an orderly manner and attacking on the counterattack. It works because Sels outdoes himself on at least 4 occasions in the first half, the last bastion that the Wolves are unable to beat, even if they get in front of him with a frequency rarely seen this season. It works because when it comes to restarting, Espirito Santo has built a formidable team, with the speed of Elanga and Hudson-Odoi on the wings and the class of Gibbs-White in the middle who always keep the home defense under pressure, improvised for the many absences. Espirito Santo’s choice to switch to a 5-man defense after an hour of play paid off, because Forest didn’t take any more risks. And now he enjoys this dream: 6 wins in a row, 4 games without conceding a goal, the virtual title of the best team in the Premier League, the big match with Liverpool on the horizon. Forest remains the only team in Europe to have beaten Arne Slot’s elusive Reds this season: they will try to do it again when the Premier League resumes next week, convinced they can do it again. How sure they are, victory after victory, that they are no longer an intruder at the top of the table but a team that is showing on the pitch that it deserves Europe.

the match

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Forest broke the deadlock after 7′ with Gibbs-White, who closed a splendid restart with his former player’s goal. Wolverhampton went into the break 2-0 down, also skewered by Wood in the 44th minute after a splendid escape to the left by Hudson-Odoi, but they definitely deserved more given the 4 big chances saved by Sels. II Forest switches to a five-man defense in the 60th minute and manages to put the game to sleep, scoring the third goal in the 94th minute with Awoniyi, still on the counterattack. And so behind Liverpool there is again the team from the city of Robin Hood, which increasingly seems like the most beautiful fairy tale produced by the Premier since the days of Leicester.