They couldn’t, could they? Fifty years after Brian Clough walked into the City Ground and changed this club for good, Nottingham Forest are dreaming of an achievement that would have made their greatest manager proud beyond words.
If Nuno Espirito Santo’s side record their seventh straight league win when they take on Liverpool at the City Ground on January 14, they will move to within three points of Arne Slot’s league leaders. Pull off a league double against the Reds and suddenly anything will appear possible.
Those who scoff at Forest’s title chances should remember two words: Leicester City. Everybody thought Claudio Ranieri’s team would fail to stay the course in 2016 and instead they wrote the greatest Premier League story ever told. Perhaps until now.
Look at this Forest team and it is tough to see a weakness. In Matz Sels, they have one of the league’s best goalkeepers, and Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo are probably its strongest centre-back pairing.
In midfield Elliot Anderson and Nicolas Dominguez have technique and athleticism, Morgan Gibbs-White is an excellent playmaker and they have speedsters Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi on the wings. Not to mention Chris Wood, a centre-forward in the form of his life.
No wonder Nuno is reluctant to change too much during the January transfer window, for fear of disrupting a rock-solid team spirit that he has taken so much care to build.
Morgan Gibbs-White needed just seven minutes to silence the jeering crowd at Wolves
The midfielder provided a neat finish to open the scoring in Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 win
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side remain third in the table and are level on points with Arsenal
Forest are also enjoying that quality no ambitious team can be without – luck. Revived under Vitor Pereira, Wolves played well here and deserved more, especially in the first half. but they found Sels inspired and Jorgen Strand Larsen unusually hesitant in front of goal.
When you create chances against this supremely organised Forest side, you had better take them. Wolves were duly punished by first-half goals from Gibbs-White – berated once more on his return to this stadium – and Wood, while substitute Taiwo Awoniyi added a third late on. The home side could not match that clinical edge and that is why they are above the bottom three on goal difference alone
Forest fans’ confidence was apparent instantly as they belted out a song about qualifying for the Champions League and their optimism was justified as their team took an early lead, exploiting a makeshift Wolves back three that featured two orthodox full-backs in Matt Doherty and Rayan Ait-Nouri. Wolves were also missing key attacker Matheus Cunha due to suspension.
There has been plenty of needle between Wolves and Gibbs-White ever since the playmaker left Molineux for Forest in summer 2022 but some of the chants aimed at the 24-year-old in the opening stages were particularly grim. It was no surprise what happened next.
After a Wolves move broke down, Gibbs-White glided forward and swapped passes with Anthony Elanga before firing home from 12 yards via a deflection off Doherty. Gibbs-White jogged towards the South Bank and stared them down, performing his customary fingers-in-ears celebration. They were silent, all right.
The goal seemed to be exactly the shake-up Vitor Pereira’s team needed. Hee Chan Hwang seized on Elliot Anderson’s loose pass and slid the ball goalwards, where Murillo made a decisive intervention just as Jorgen Strand Larsen prepared to turn in the equaliser.
Less than a minute later, Rodrigo Gomes’ arrowed a brilliant volley goalwards only for Matz Sels to make an even better save. From the corner, Sels did well again to pinch the ball from Goncalo Guedes.
Though Wolves were attacking well, they rushed when they needed to be calm. Both Hwang and Ait-Nouri sliced comically into the crowd from promising crossing positions, with Ait-Nouri already relieved not to have conceded a penalty when Ola Aina’s cross struck his hand. Wolves should have equalised moments earlier, mind.
Chris Wood (right) found a second just before half-time for the visitors on the night
Just as Manchester United had targeted Trent Alexander-Arnold at Anfield on Sunday, so Wolves did the same to Ola Aina 24 hours later. On the half-hour mark, Rodrigo bore down on the Forest right-back again and delivered a perfect cross. With the whole goal to aim at, Strand Larsen headed straight at Sels from point blank range.
It is difficult to imagine Wood missing a chance like that and Forest’s top scorer showed his ruthlessness again a minute before half-time. Doherty was exposed by Callum Hudson-Odoi, who tore past him to the byline and cut the ball back into the danger zone, where a prod of Wood’s left boot did the rest.
Wolves tried to gather momentum at the start of the second half. Against this Forest side, though, prising the door open is one of the hardest jobs going.
Milenkovic and Murillo swept up everything in central defence – unless the midfield duo in front of them, Anderson and Dominguez, had beaten them to it. And given the speed of Elanga and Hudson-Odoi, Wolves were always vulnerable to the counter-attack.
Dominguez was replaced by Morato on the hour as Nuno moved from a back four to a back three to try to lock down the result. Forest nearly did so when Elanga burst into the box and Anderson’s effort was blocked by Santi Bueno.
By now Wolves had made changes of their own, allowing Ait-Nouri to push forward more often. Collecting a pass from substitute Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Ait-Nouri fizzed one across goal and the South Bank howled when nobody was there to finish it.
They were frustrated again when Guedes charged 50 yards and fed Strand Larsen only for the Norwegian to be denied again by Sels. Then Awoniyi made it the perfect evening for Forest with the third in stoppage time.
Could they? You had better believe it.
