Here’s your match report from the London Stadium via Jacob Steinberg which marks the end of today’s minute-by-minute action. A good day for Nottingham Forest … who will hope for an even better day in a week’s time against Chelsea. What a game that ought to be at the City Ground.
As always, a big thanks for reading and for your emails today. It’s been enjoyable.
And here’s what Graham Potter had to say:
It was an even game, we concede the early goal from a mistake which is disappointing then we made changes and they scored straight after. Marginal offside that took a while to sort out. Credit to the players, they kept pushing, they gave everything. We just came up a bit short.
Forest are going for what they are and we wanted three points and it was a bit stop start. The goal makes it difficult for the referee. They scored after the subs but then we pushed and pushed, scored a good goal and had other opportunities but fell short.
Here’s Nuno’s reaction:
A lot of stoppages in the game so we were anxious to get the game finished. Until the West Ham goal we were in control. Then the anxiety comes when we allowed the goal and everything is difficult from there. Matz [Sels] did great again so we’re happy.
We started really well. Previous games a lot of bad things happened to us but today that was not the case. Today we pressed good, got a good goal, started well in the second half, on the front foot. Generally a good performance. The players worked hard to put West Ham under pressure.
Premier League Match Centre on the check for Forest’s second goal: “The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Milenkovic in an onside position and Domínguez in an offside position, but deemed not to be impacting on play.
“The semi-automated offside technology was not available to the VAR in this incident. There were also issues with the VAR communications to the on-field officials.”
We played so long that Arsenal v Newcastle is kicking off NOW. Watch the football, watch it!
Right, as it stands in the Champions League qualification race:
2. Arsenal – 68 points from 36 games
3. Newcastle – 66 points from 36 games
4. Chelsea – 66 points from 37 games
5. Aston Villa – 66 points from 37 games
6. Manchester City – 65 points from 36 games
7. Nottingham Forest – 65 points from 37 games
FT: West Ham 1-2 Nottingham Forest
After a scramble in the visitors’ box, another Sels save, and some very late yellow cards handed out by Sam Barrott, that’s it – game, set and match Forest. They can start thinking about next week’s Champions League showdown with Chelsea now, because those top five hopes are still very much alive and kicking.
They went 2-0 up through Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic and, although Jarrod Bowen made it very tense late on, Forest survived and clung onto the three points.
We ended up playing to the 117 minute mark thanks to various VAR and refereeing delays.
115 minutes on the clock now and still we haven’t had a full-time whistle. Paqueta and Milenkovic, among others, were involved in a scuffle.
There’s a few late handbags going on between the players and VAR is looking into an incident. It’s all a bit of a mess.
We’ve ticked into the rarified air beyond the 100-minute mark. Forest continue to thwart West Ham’s various attacking attempts. Jota Silva does enough to win the away side a corner, which is ideal for them.
90 mins +8: Forest win it back and Wood only has eyes for the corner flag.
90 mins +7: Forest are interested in wasting time and little else at this late stage … I suppose you can hardly blame them but it could mean we’ll get more than the 11 allotted minutes of stoppage time.
West Ham are coming forward once more …
90 mins +5: Elanga’s final act of the game is to win his team a corner. He’s been really sharp this afternoon, a consistent outlet on the counterattack. What a season he’s had.
90 mins +4: Ryan Yates and Jota Silva are going to come on to try and see this out for Forest.
90 mins +2: West Ham suddenly look like a different team. Guilherme is running into some dangerous areas and Forest look panicked. Wood misses his touch after getting a rare opening on the break.
90 mins: Coufal hooks it back towards Bowen whose shot is blocked. Todibo is then booked, not quite sure why, as his tackle seemed like a fair one.
We’ve got 11 (ELEVEN) minutes of added time!
89 mins: Remember there will be a hefty chunk of added time because of that VAR delay. Murillo has gone down again – not sure whether it’s a reoccurrence of that injury or perhaps a spot of gamesmanship.
Forest are happy to take their time here.
Oooh it’s the most sumptuous of left-footed volleys. The touch to set it up wasn’t bad either! Bowen remains a shining light for this West Ham side.
Nuno looks concerned. This wasn’t in the script. The crowd are up.
GOAL! West Ham 1-2 Nottingham Forest (Bowen, 86)
West Ham have a lifeline. But has it come too late? Some nervy moments now await for Forest. A quite brilliant strike from Jarrod Bowen.
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85 mins: The great thing about this Forest side is how they cover for each other’s mistakes. Elanga played a poor backheel to nobody hoping to keep the ball in play and West Ham broke on it – but they were soon smothered out by a clutch of Forest defenders.
Forest are making their first changes, with Gibbs-White, Sangaré and Anderson trotting off.
On come Danilo, Morato and the fit-again Hudson-Odoi. Back five time?
82 mins: Huffing and puffing seems like the perfect phrase to describe what West Ham are doing. Someone check with Adam Hurrey.
An email from Matt Dale on the VAR delay to end all delays earlier:
Watching the game in a bar with no volume. It looked like the referee was put in a bad situation by VAR (possible tech issues) but I thought he handled the situation very well.
Not sure who the ref is [Sam Barrott] but he looks to be having a good all-round game.
I’m a depressed Man Utd fan so have no skin in this game but I do feel officials should get credit where due and not be an easy scape goat.
Still baffled how long it took VAR to reach a decision. I was always against the introduction of VAR and have seen nothing to change my mind. Maybe managers, coaches and players should just learn to accept on field decisions.
You’re right on the referee, Matt, he’s done well. The VAR situation was largely out of his hands.
79 mins: Potter rolls the dice one more time, bringing Luis Guilherme on for the hapless Kudus.
78 mins: You know when pundits and TV presenters say ‘this has been a great advert for the Premier League’? Well, this one hasn’t.
Forest won’t care, mind you, it’s suited them down to the ground. They’re in precisely the position they’d have wanted to be in.
76 mins: Another Hammers player goes into the book, after Paqueta blatantly pulled back Elanga, who was dashing into more open space.
75 mins: An untimely slip from Coufal almost allows Elanga through to latch onto Gibbs-White’s cross from the right. West Ham scramble clear in the end.
73 mins: Mohammed Kudus is a good player who is having a bad season. But he remains on the pitch as he’s pretty much the best option Graham Potter has.
The hosts were starting to look a little dangerous until Kudus hooked one miles over the crossbar.
71 mins: Lovely play from Soler, dragging the ball back onto his right foot, staying composed and forcing a save from Sels. It opened up for him there.
69 mins: Back in the real world, Forest are on the front foot again, with Gibbs-White winning a corner. He’s been immense today – head and shoulders above everyone else.
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68 mins: I’m still reeling from that delay. How can it possibly take that long to decide whether Dominguez was interfering with play from an offside position when it was clear nobody else was offside and the ball didn’t go anywhere near him? Truly baffling stuff.
GOAL GIVEN. Let’s all move on with our lives, shall we?
That delay lasted more than six minutes. Good grief.
65 mins: This is taking a farcical amount of time. “F*ck VAR” is the chant from the terraces.
63 mins: The officials are still having communication issues apparently … Dominguez is the only Forest player offside from Elanga’s delivery. You cannot give that as offside, can you? Who knows.
VAR is having a look at this … was anyone in an active offside position? Doesn’t look much wrong with it to me.
GOAL! West Ham 0-2 Nottingham Forest (Milenkovic, 61)
Elanga whips it in and it’s ended in the net via a touch or two. That might be Elanga’s goal!
No, it looks like it was glanced in by Milenkovic. Either way Forest have a precious two-goal lead and all the plaudits must go to Elanga for a wicked delivery.
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60 mins: Füllkrug at least ought to give West Ham a focal point, something they’ve badly lacked this season. It looks like a back four now with Bowen and Kudus wide of the German.
At the other end, Todibo clatters into Elanga who was racing down the left, conceding a free-kick.
FOUR West Ham changes …
Füllkrug for Soucek, Alvarez for Cresswell, Paquetá for Rodriguez and Soler for Ward-Prowse. Let’s see how that shakes things up.
Updated
57 mins: Guido Rodriguez, who has been largely anonymous, is booked for hauling down Gibbs-White.
The resulting free-kick is lobbed into the mixer by Anderson but Murillo’s volleyed cross is easily gathered by Areola.
56 mins: Coufal has a pop and it’s not half bad. Forest afford him the time to chest down and volley just over the crossbar.
Graham Potter is preparing a number of changes, to hopefully bring some thrust to this lacklustre performance.
54 mins: Nice play from Wan-Bissaka, nicking the ball as Forest threatened a counter and then slinking in between a few men and playing for Coufal to cross nicely … but why so few Hammers gambling in the box? Nothing came of it in the end.
Neco Williams is the latest Forest player to go down with a knock. He looks fine, to be honest.
52 mins: Better. Kudus wriggles away from a couple of Forest players, with Anderson booked for a despairing challenge on the Ghanaian.
51 mins: Jeez, this is slow paced stuff at the moment. I know West Ham have very little motivation, but there’s no urgency about their play at all.
48 mins: Can West Ham offer any sort of attacking threat in this half? It all sort of fizzled out for them after an encouraging start in the first 45.
Their fans will demand something in the final home half of the season.
46 mins: Kudos to the Forest medical team, who have clearly sorted out the Brazilian defender to get him in a fit enough state to play a little while longer. Is he 100 percent fit though? We’ll see.
Second half: Back under way – and Murillo is back up and running for Forest after all!
It looks like Murillo will play no part in the second half. He didn’t quite need a stretcher but went off around the perimeter of the pitch on the back of a buggy to the visiting dressing room.
Morato is the likely half-time replacement for him. That’s a blow for Forest.
The two 3pm kick-offs are under way, with Fulham’s Raul Jimenez scoring for them at Brentford. Leicester v Ipswich is the other game.
HT: West Ham 0-1 Nottingham Forest
A half that begin brightly and openly ended in rather dour and dismal fashion, especially for West Ham, who found themselves a goal down after 11 minutes via a horrible Alphonse Areola error. Morgan Gibbs-White, who has comfortably been the best player on the pitch, made no mistake in capitalising and Forest have the exact situation they’d have craved before kick-off.
They lead 1-0 at the break and their Champions League qualification hopes are still very much alive. West Ham simply must do better.
The only negative for the visitors could be an injury that Murillo sustained right at the end of the half, challenging for a ball in the West Ham box. It looks like an ankle injury and Nuno’s brow was furrowed as the defender got treatment deep into first half added time. We’ll hear more about that during half-time, for sure.
45 mins +3: Coufal goes into the referee’s book for a show of dissent after a 50-50 corner/goal-kick decision is given Forest’s way. That sums up the Hammers’ half.
45 mins + 1: “They’re not angry, they’re just bored,” says Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher of the West Ham fans, who haven’t had much to cheer so far today.
This half is fizzling out somewhat. We’ll have four added minutes, though,
42 mins: It’s been a frustrating watch, so far, for those of us with Elanga and Wood in our fantasy football teams.
41 mins: Two big opportunities go begging for Chris Wood … or do they? The flag belatedly goes up and it looks very close on replay. Wood couldn’t find Elanga in the first instance and then took too much time and only found Areola with the second.
39 mins: Slide tackle after slide block… the Forest commitment is there for all to see. But there’s no great urgency from them to commit players forward at this stage. They’re in control, without controlling possession or territory.
37 mins: A near mixup in the Forest defence almost brings about a goal for Cresswell, who aims a cheeky backheel goalwards and gets a corner for his troubles.
Soucek is then penalised for a push going up for a header.
36 mins: The home fans have found their voices and are urging their team forward at every opportunity. Almost every backwards pass prompts a London Stadium groan. Their team are still bossing the ball.
34 mins: Milenkovic slides in effectively to stop Kudus racing through the centre of Forest’s defence. Good defending, as usual, from the Serbian international.
32 mins: Kudus arrives late in the box for a header but mis-times his jump and it’s over the bar.
31 mins: Anderson, who looks to have shaken off that knock by the way, is doing a decent job of recycling the ball for Forest in the middle. It’s so congested in there that West Ham cannot navigate a route through.
30 mins: Magnificent feet from Gibbs-White, deep in his own territory, to dance away from trouble and get Forest moving forward with a good pass. He’s a fine player.
28 mins: West Ham are drifting a bit here. They’re largely dominating possession and their wing-backs are both decent outlets, but you just can’t see them penetrating the Forest defence.
Bowen has at least won a corner.
A very predictable email from Nick Mullen re the Forest goal:
That boob from Areola will live long in the mammary.
25 mins: Not sure Anderson will be able to continue here. He’s stayed down for some time and requires a bit of treatment. He’s a key man in this Forest lineup.
24 mins: And there’s a proper melee in the box following the corner. Did it hit the crossbar at some stage? Wood was in the mix, but it’s ended with Elliot Anderson down injured.
23 mins: Gibbs-White picks out Wood at the back-post, with the New Zealander winning a corner. There’s so much space for Forest when they transition forward.
20 mins: Kudus played a lovely one-two with Wan-Bissaka and looked to square for Bowen, who ended up careering into the woodwork as the cross evaded him. Ouch – that made a horrible noise. Let’s hope he’s OK.
18 mins: Coufal has looked pretty dangerous down the right so far for the hosts. Forest have struggled to pick him up.
A mad stat: From their first 30 Premier League games this season, Forest scored first in 23 of them. Protecting leads and all that, eh?
15 mins: Forest have a spring in their step now and actually, far from sitting back to protect their lead, look eager to double it as soon as possible. Todibo crashes into Elanga and somehow doesn’t concede a free-kick.
13 mins: West Ham, with that error, completely undermined the fairly positive start they’d made to the game. Graham Potter must be tearing his hair out. Forest have the kind of early lead they can protect.
Oh Areola, it’s a terrible pass that goes straight to Gibbs-White, who is never going to pass up that opportunity! A simple finish.
Gibbs-White celebrates with another tribute to the stricken Taiwo Awoniyi.
GOAL! West Ham 0-1 Nottingham Forest (Gibbs-White, 11)
Wood and Elanga are starting to combine effectively for the visitors, with the former Manchester United man appealing for a penalty after being crowded out in the box.
Seconds later, a West Ham error gifts an easy goal for Gibbs-White!
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10 mins: Another attack, another shot and another save! This time it’s Chris Wood stinging the palms of Areola with a piledriver from 25 yards. A more open opening 10 minutes you could not wish to see.
8 mins: I’d love to see the xG of that Gibbs-White opportunity. Suspect it would be quite high given its close range nature.
It’s real end-to-end stuff here as Bowen draws defenders and it falls for Coufal to force another save from Sels from the right. West Ham looking fairly fluent in attacking areas so far.
6 mins: A big save from Alphonse Areola this time, as a long throw falls kindly for Gibbs-White to volley goalwards from six yards. Should he find the corner there? It’s way too close to the goalkeeper.
5 mins: There’s a problem with the officials’ microphones, which brings a small delay.
Forest’s first attack then yields very little, with Elanga’s cross snuffed out.
3 mins: It’s a barrage of early crosses from West Ham that Forest are having to deal with. The home team have begun freely.
2 mins: Wow, Sels is sprung into an early save from Soucek’s header. Coufal has loads of time from the right to deliver a cross and his finds the head of his fellow countryman. Tipped over for a corner.
1 min: It’s a fairly muted atmosphere around the London Stadium, with a few seats yet to be filled. Aaron Cresswell, playing in his final home game as a Hammer, has at least received a good ovation from the supporters.
KICK OFF
LET’S GO!
The players are out and we’re almost ready …
One win in their past six Premier League games amounts to a run of form that Nottingham Forest may rue if Champions League qualification eludes them. They really cannot afford another slip-up now, given other teams have surged beyond them. The silver lining today is how good Forest have been on the road this season, with only Liverpool winning more away games.
Less than 10 minutes until kick-off.
Nuno Espirito Santo said yesterday that Nottingham Forest were “concerned but positive” about Taiwo Awoniyi after the striker was put in an induced coma when he suffered a serious abdominal injury against Leicester.
Awoniyi remains very much in the club’s thoughts today as they warm up in tops bearing his name. He remains under observation and in recovery.
An email from Jeremy Boyce:
It’s very good of you (Daniel now, Emillia now, you later...) all to provide us with your MBMs on these end of season Super Sunday matches with some potentially important points and a cup at stake. But surely all your work will be overshadowed by the action later on where REALLY big things could happen. Of course I’m talking about the Vardy-o-clock (15.00 BST on what is very much Super Vardyday) fixture where the big fella just needs 1 goal for the perfect send-off in his final appearance at Filb ... the King Power. He couldn’t ask for kinder opposition today than the free-conceding Tractors, so kind in fact that you could imagine them, if it gets to 89 minutes and he hasn’t found the net yet, giving him possession then forming a guard of honour as he walks the ball in. Would he accept the offer ?
Surely Vards will have to go out in a blaze of glory, Jeremy, Skittles-vodka an’ all.
Lucas Paquetá is among the West Ham substitutes this afternoon and his manager Graham Potter has revealed the ongoing investigation into whether the Brazilian breached betting rules is taking a toll on the player.
There’s plenty else going on around the footballing world this fine Sunday. Catch the final moments of the last ever Everton men’s fixture at Goodison Park, or the early knockings of the Women’s FA Cup final. Or stick with me here, if you wish.
Some stats: West Ham have won five of their six Premier League home games against Nottingham Forest, while Forest are seeking to complete their first league double over the Hammers since 1983/84.
In fairness, they haven’t been in the same division all that much in this century.
It’s crazy to think that 20 points separated these two teams at the end of last season, with West Ham finishing in ninth on 52 points and Forest way down in 17th on just 32 points.
This season has seen a near-perfect reversal of those positions, with Forest currently on 62 points and West Ham on 40.
Just shows what can be achieved if you do/don’t have a plan.
Team news
West Ham (3-5-2): Areola; Todibo, Kilman, Cresswell; Coufal, Ward-Prowse, Rodríguez, Soucek, Wan-Bissaka; Bowen, Kudus.
Subs: Fabianski, Soler, Paquetá, Füllkrug, Mavropanos, Guilherme, Álvarez, Emerson, Ferguson.
Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Sangaré, Anderson; Gibbs-White, Domínguez, Elanga; Wood.
Subs: Miguel, Morato, Hudson-Odoi, Toffolo, J. Silva, Yates, R. Sosa, Oliveira, Abbott.
Updated
Preamble
Now then, Nottingham Forest have an opportunity to set up a potential doozy of a final day Champions League qualification decider against Chelsea – providing they can see off West Ham at the London Stadium today.
Newcastle will have their say in the top five race when they face Arsenal later on, but for now Forest know that a win would propel them to 65 points – level with Manchester City (who play Bournemouth in midweek) and one point off fifth-placed Chelsea, the very team Forest face next weekend. Oooft. Any dropped points from Nuno Espírito Santo’s men, however, would realistically end their hopes of playing Champions League football next season – not that Europa League or Conference League qualification ought to be looked upon as a failure.
Still, having been riding as high as third for a long time this season, Forest fans will not want to see their side squander another chance to pick up vital points this afternoon, especially against a poor West Ham side whose only win in their past nine matches was at … an even worse Manchester United. The Hammers have little in the way of motivation, while you’d assume Forest will be bang up for it.
Kick off is at 2.15pm (BST) and team news will drop into the next post.
