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81 min Xhaka waves a fine pass over the top to Isidor, whose cutback is cleared at the near post by Morato.
79 min I’m not sure whether this is relevant to Forest anymore, but West Ham and Spurs are both in action at 3pm tomorrow.
West Ham v Everton
Wolves v Spurs
76 min Alderete sprays a half-volley over the bar from distance. And why not?
76 min Yates pushes Mukiele over and is booked. That’s the seventh yellow card of the game, all in the last 25 minutes.
74 min Xhaka shoots wide from distance, turns round and gives the referee a mouthful about something or other. He’s booked.
72 min Forest haven’t really bothered to attack in the second half. They’ve had no shots and one touch in the Sunderland box; given the scoreline, that’s more than enough.
69 min Forest continue to collect yellow cards. This time it’s Williams, who crumps Reinildo on the foot after being beaten to a 50/50 ball.
67 min: Double substitution for Forest Ryan Yates and Luca Netz replace Igor Jesus and Omari Hutchinson.
Forest play Aston Villa at the City Ground next Thursday in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final, so this is a decent opportunity to rest players.
66 min That VAR check took almost five minutes; Sunderland will hope they can regain the momentum they had before the goal that wasn’t.
65 min: Sunderland substitution Wilson Isidor comes on for Habib Diarra.
ShareDisallowed goal! Sunderland 0-4 Nottm Forest
65 min Mukiele slipped after keeping that Xhaka free-kick alive and then accidentally tripped Sels, who might otherwise have got to the ball before Ballard.
84 years later, we have a decision. No goal. Photograph: George Wood/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.29 EDT
62 min The offside has been cleared but now there’s another VAR check for a possible foul by Mukiele on Sels. I think this will go against Sunderland.
Xhaka’s free-kick was lobbed across the six-yard box by Mukiele – I’m not sure whether he was going for goal or not – and headed in by Ballard. There’a VAR check for offside against Mukiele but I think the goal will stand.
ShareGOAL! Sunderland 1-4 Nottm Forest (Ballard 61)
A deserved goal for Sunderland. They and their fans have been brilliant since half-time, almost absurdly so given the scoreline.
Dan Ballard has the ball in the back of the Forest net. Photograph: Scott Heppell/ReutersShare
Updated at 16.28 EDT
60 min Now Igor Jesus is booked for lunging Reinildo.
58 min The home crowd, who were already making quite a racket, go up a level when the former Newcastle midfielder Anderson is booked for a foul.
57 min Xhaka fires a fine pass into Alderete, whose shot on the turn is saved easily by Sels.
It can’t be much fun resuming a match when you’re 4-0 down at home, but Sunderland are playing with admirable intent.
52 min Hutchinson gets to the byline and somehow digs out a cross that is volleyed back across goal by Anderson. The ball hits Hume and goes behind for… a goalkick. Hutchinson’s cross was adjudged to have gone out of play before swinging back in.
51 min Dominguez is booked for a tactical foul on Diarra, who is also booked for waving an imaginary card.
50 min: Forest substitution Morato replaces Jair Cunha, who shakes his head repeatedly as he is walked off the field.
48 min Jair Cunha may need to come off. He fell badly on his shoulder after a challenge with Brobbey; Morato is warming up.
46 min The second half gets under way. Both teams have made a substitution.
Sunderland Reinildo for Chris Rigg.
Nottm Forest Nicolas Dominguez for Ibrahim Sangare.
There were boos at the half-time whistle, and it looks like Nordi Mukiele had a full and frank exchange of views with some of the home fans.
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Jonathan Liew
Half-time reading
Zadie Smith once wrote that “the square mile around Arsenal’s stadium could be a suitable surrogate for the whole wide world”. Perhaps you only really glimpse this on a match day, when the jerk chicken grills and paella pans fire up and belch delicious smoke across the rows of terraced houses, when the locals in weathered replica shirts brush shoulders with tourists bearing selfie sticks, when a small group of dedicated volunteers at a kiosk by the Ken Friar Bridge accepts non-perishable donations for the Islington food bank.
And you shall scoff, and you shall sneer, because there is a north London of the popular imagination, and Islington in particular, which has become a surrogate for something else entirely. A slur, an insult, a byword for privilege and entitlement and metropolitan effeteness, the place of Blair and Corbyn and Starmer and a shrink on every street corner. North London is elite, north London is out of touch, north London looks down on the rest of you while eating plates of £16 pasta.
In this telling the idea of Arsenal surrendering a nine-point lead in the Premier League title race feels richly poetic: just and right and perhaps even moral. The neutrals have swung firmly behind Manchester City, who assumed the lead with a 1-0 win over Burnley on Wednesday night. After all, Pep Guardiola’s team play fair, play football in the way it is supposed to be played, brook no underlying ethical or geopolitical objections.
Manchester, as we know, is a city entirely devoid of liberal sensibilities or progressive sentiment. Every title race needs a hero and a heel, and while these two clubs may be inseparable in terms of points or goal difference, while many have no strong feelings about who should win, there appears to be a tightening consensus over who should lose.
Updated at 15.50 EDT
Half time: Sunderland 0-4 Nottm Forest
At half-time last Sunday, Forest were 1-0 down at home to Burnley and in a spot of bother. Since then they’ve scored eight goals without reply – four at the City Ground last Sunday, four during a crazy first half at the Stadium of Light.
An unfortunate own goal from Trai Hume was followed by accomplished finishes from Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus. When it starts to make sense, I’ll let you know.
44 min This will make it 12 points in the last six league games for Forest, who are surely/almost certainly staying up.
43 min It’s still 4-0, and it’s still mildly bonkers.
39 min “It does feel like Forest are not so much inching away from relegation as they’re strapped to a rocket towards safety,” writes Kári Tulinius. “In another game tonight, Stade Brestois lead RC Lens 3-0 at half time, surely ending the latter’s unlikely title tilt. This is the part of the season where nearly stories sputter to a halt.”
Oh, thanks a lot for bringing up 1991-92 again. It’s too soon!
Updated at 15.43 EDT
Forest have now scored eight goals in their last 75 minutes of football. A free-kick from the right was cleared as far as Aina on the edge of the D. His snapshot hit a defender and looped across goal to Igor Jesus, who cushioned a terrific volley into the net.
ShareGOAL! Sunderland 0-4 Nottm Forest (Igor Jesus 37)
What the actual Forest?!
What is happening?!? Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PAShare
Updated at 15.43 EDT
36 min The relegation battle now looks like a two-horse race between West Ham and Spurs.
This is beyond Forest’s wildest ones. A corner on the left was taken short and curled beyond the far post by Williams. Igor Jesus headed it down to Gibbs-White, 12 yards out, and he cracked an emphatic finish through the crowd.