Decoding the Nottingham Forest phenomenon

Before losing to Newcastle, Nottingham Forest were third in the table – their highest position in 3 years. Now, Nottingham Forest are still level on points with third-placed Chelsea. But Nuno Espirito’s side have had to accept the reality: Newcastle are a strong team in principle. Their poor form has left them languishing in mid-table. But the game showed: their superiority in strength helped Newcastle easily adjust their tactics and win after Forest had led in the first half.

Newcastle is the alarm bell. After the FIFA Days, Nottingham Forest will continuously face strong teams when club football is active again. Arsenal, Manchester City, MU, Aston Villa will be 4 of the next 5 opponents. On the one hand, people are waiting to see how Forest can maintain their position (which seems to be the consensus prediction of the majority). On the other hand, when looking at the upcoming opponents, observers immediately answer the question of the past. It turns out that Nottingham Forest flew in the first 10 rounds mainly because they did not face many strong opponents?

Of course, that’s just one way of looking at it. Forest fans will see it differently: there are no weak opponents in the Premier League! Remember, Forest are still the only team in Europe (yes, Europe, not just the Premier League) to have beaten Liverpool this season. Even more gloriously, it was a victory right at Anfield.

Coach Espirito is really talented and understands the Premier League very well. Owner Evangelos Marinakis always shows his “bloodthirsty” side (the team owner was also suspended for 5 matches by the Premier League organizers, so you can see how passionate he is). Recently, Technical Director Edu suddenly left Arsenal to take a managerial position in Nottingham Forest. Forest’s ambition to “play big” is real.

Forest's strength is really not remarkable. Almost all the responsibility for scoring goals belongs to Chris Wood (New Zealand). Whether Edu can improve the force or not, we have to wait and see. After all, in football, strength and results are two things that do not necessarily go together. According to Opta's professional statistics, Forest have achieved better results than their theoretical ability in the first 10 rounds. No one can stop Espirito and his team from continuing to demonstrate this!