Manager Vitor Pereira will be looking to lead his side to their first league win after Nottingham Forest suffered a 2-1 defeat at Brighton.
All three goals were scored in a frenetic opening 15 minutes, with Diego Gomez and Danny Welbeck scoring either side of Morgan Gibbs-White’s beauty to ensure the Seagulls secured the three points.
Burnley, West Ham and Tottenham all lost this weekend, and the defeats meant Forest were unable to progress against their relegation rivals in the remaining 10 games of the Premier League.
Despite ending their last game against Brentford without a win in six games, Fabian Hürzeler’s side were brimming with confidence and jumped out of the trap. Their early dominance paid off as Gomez took a deserved lead with a perfect cut from the corner of the penalty area and a shot inside the far post.
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Brighton take the lead against Nottingham Forest with a ‘fantastic’ Diego Gomez volley!
That seemed to wake up Forest and they responded with some style. A perfect dummy from Igor Jesus at the far post released the Brighton defense and Gibbs-White curled in deftly from distance to slot home past Bert Verbruggen.
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Gibbs-White scores a stunning equalizer in the Premier League match between Nottingham Forest and Brighton.
However, any hopes that Pereira would inspire his side quickly disappeared, and within two minutes Welbeck added his 11th goal of the season to restore the hosts’ advantage.
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Danny Welbeck’s goal takes Brighton back to the top of the Premier League against Nottingham Forest!
Brighton continued to look for a third goal but were unable to get past Mats Sells, giving the visiting team the chance to make the most of some dangerous counter-attacks.
However, Pereira’s team was unable to score the equalizer. This means Forest have scored just one goal from 66 attempts in their last three Premier League matches.
Forest remain 17th in the Premier League, unable to leapfrog ahead of Tottenham who lost against Fulham. Brighton, on the other hand, have moved up to 11th place with two consecutive wins and are closing in on the top half.
Gibbs-White: We need to look at ourselves.
Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White told Sky Sports:
“It’s frustrating. We can’t start the game in these circumstances. We need to seriously look ourselves in the mirror, recognize the situation we’re in and step up for the club, the fans, everyone involved and ourselves. It wasn’t enough.”
Morgan Gibbs-White insists Nottingham Forest players need to ‘look at themselves’ after defeat to Brighton
“The first half was obviously tough, but we responded in the second half. We came out fighting. We came out with a desire to win, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the extra points.”
“I would like to explain why now, but we will probably do some things in the next few days, analyze the game and understand what went wrong.
“But I don’t think we were too switched on from the first whistle and in my eyes you can see that with the two sloppy goals.
“Yes, obviously we created some chances. We could have scored more, but at the end of the day it wasn’t our day. So, like I said, we have to go back to square one. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and try again because we are in a tough situation at the moment and we need to get out of it.”
Pereira: “Tiredness is no excuse”
Nottingham Forest manager Vitor Pereira told Sky Sports.
“The fatigue is not only physical, but also mental, because we need to recover, but this is what we have.
“We can’t make excuses because of the Europa League, because we are there.
“We are competing there and have a calendar where we play every three days.
“We need to be ready for the next game and go into a calendar like this.”
‘Inspiring’ Milner looks forward to another year
Brighton striker Danny Welbeck told Sky Sports about James Milner after the 2-1 win against Nottingham Forest.
“Honestly, it’s an honour. I get to come to training and come to work every day and see Millie at her best.
Danny Welbeck believes James Milner has shown he is still capable of producing at the highest level
“He’s been there and everything he does sets a standard and it affects everyone around him. Not just the players, but the staff, everyone at the football club. I don’t think people realize the level of influence he has now that he’s here.”
“He hasn’t played as many games this season, but his last two performances show the level he can perform on the pitch. Everyone is eager for him. He did an unbelievable performance last week and he’s going to do it again. It’s like, ‘One more year, one more year.’
“Honestly, what he does for us every day is incredible and I couldn’t ask for more inspiration.”
Forest are really having problems scoring goals.
Analysis from Sky Sports’ Callum Bishop:
“66 shots in the last three games against Nottingham Forest. One goal, one point. That sums up their struggle towards the bottom of the Premier League.”
“It’s not that Vitor Pereira didn’t have chances today, they had more than enough to get something out of the game, but they lacked the clinical edge they needed.
“Last year Chris Wood scored 20 goals, fourth in the Premier League, and this season Forest’s top scorer in the league is Morgan Gibbs-White with seven goals.
“In fact, their top seven scorers don’t even come close to the score achieved by Wood alone last season. It’s abundantly clear what the big problem is, but with only 10 games left it won’t take long to fix it.”
