- Nottingham Forest beat West Ham 3-0 and moves into third place in the table
- Chris Wood, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina scored Saturday’s goals
- LISTEN NOW: It’s all starting!available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
Nottingham Forest currently represents everything West Ham want to be.
It is a team with an identity and a clear style of play. There is a connection between his coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, and the fans. Their center forward, Chris Wood, can’t stop scoring.
Saturday’s victory at the City Ground saw them move up to third place in the Premier League standings. Say it quietly: they may be European contenders this season.
That’s what West Ham were supposed to be. What Nuno has created at Forest is what Julen Lopetegui was tasked with bringing to east London when he replaced David Moyes. The Spaniard may only have 10 games in, but his team couldn’t be further away from competing with Europe’s elite.
Nuno will continue to play down Forest’s ambitions this season, but why can’t his fans dream?
Chris Wood scored again as Nottingham Forest beat West Ham United on Saturday afternoon.
Forward Wood found the net with a header from the edge of the six-yard box in the 27th minute.
This was New Zealander Wood’s sixth goal for club and country since early October.
“All of us should be proud of the way we acted,” Nuno said.
‘They scored beautiful goals, incredible goals. It’s a fantastic moment for our fans, but it doesn’t mean anything anymore. ‘We have to move forward. “It’s a very long season.”
After Wood opened the scoring in the 27th minute, Edson Álvarez saw red for two yellow cards before the break. Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina scored superb long-range shots in the second.
“We have to do much better,” Lopetegui said. “We didn’t deserve to win or draw the game. We suffered a first goal that we could avoid.
“We had the opportunity to score and then the next action was the red card, they were two key moments.”
West Ham did not lay a glove on Forest and were punished when Wood scored his eighth of the season. The striker now has 23 Premier League goals for Forest, one less than Bryan Roy’s all-time record.
He has scored as many times as the entire Manchester United team. It is baffling, then, that West Ham decided to leave him unmarked in the penalty area.
Morgan Gibbs-White played a brilliant pass to Alex Moreno on the left and he scored a cross which Wood headed in from close range.
It took West Ham 45 minutes to get their first shot on goal, but they almost equalized. A corner fell to Lucas Paqueta on the edge of the area, but his shot was superbly blocked by goal scorer Wood.
Forest turned defense into attack and within 30 seconds, West Ham had been reduced to 10 men. Álvarez was already cautioned when he collided with Anthony Elanga, who fell. Referee Peter Bankes had no choice but to issue a second yellow card.
Lopetegui replaced Crysencio Summerville and Guido Rodríguez at half-time and brought on Carlos Soler and Michail Antonio, but it was Nuno’s changes that made the difference. Elliott Anderson replaced Gibbs-White and immediately forced Jean-Clair Todibo into a foul on the edge of the area.
West Ham were reduced to 10 men just before half-time when Edson Alvarez was sent off.
Former Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi doubled the hosts’ lead in the 65th minute
Ola Aina made it 3-0 to Forest in the 78th minute with a powerful shot from long range.
Anderson launched the short free kick to Hudson-Odoi, whose shot flew past everyone in the area and into the top right corner. The ball slightly grazed the head of Nuno’s other substitute, Jota Silva, but the goal was awarded to Hudson-Odoi.
Aina then added shine to the win with the best goal of the afternoon. The right-back cut inside and fired a sensational shot into the top left corner past a helpless Lukasz Fabianski.
