And then there were two, not mathematically, not quite anyway, but certainly in the reality of relegation football. For Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, each of the five goals Nottingham Forest plundered on a quite extraordinary night of football in the North East will have felt like a fresh, flush punch in the face.
Four-nil up at half-time, five-nil to the good by the finish, those cigars in Nottingham might not be lit, but the lighters are ready. They celebrated at full-time as if they are safe and it will take the stuff of legend from herein for Forest not to be a Premier League club next season.
There are eight points between Forest — unbeaten in eight games — and Tottenham Hotspur, who were still full of Christmas turkey the last time they emerged victorious from a league game. There is the not insignificant matter — should it somehow come to this — of a seven-goal difference, in Forest’s favour, between the teams.
The gap to West Ham is now six points and feels like seven, given that Forest’s -4 goal difference is so far away from the -17 of the east London club.
31 minutes: Wood scores his first league goal since the opening day of the season, punishing a sloppy pass from Sunderland goalkeeper Roefs to double Forest’s lead…Getty
34 minutes: Gibbs-White, having provided a sublime assist for Wood’s goal, bagged one himself after a well-crafted move…Alamy
37 minutes: Jesus puts the game beyond the hosts, crashing home a fine volley for his second of the night. This came after only 13 touches in Sunderland’s boxPA
Vítor Pereira, who skipped in joy during a first half of football he said was his greatest in the game, revealed he would not be spending his Saturday afternoon watching either West Ham’s home match against Everton or Spurs’ away game against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“I will not watch the games, for sure, because I suffer with my games, that is enough!” the Forest head coach said. “Maybe I will be at home, maybe drinking a pint, but not watching the games. We must focus on our life, to fight to keep the distance.
“It was fantastic, fantastic, but in my opinion it is not enough. We need more points. We need to keep our mentality. We cannot relax.”
Pereira’s side scored four-first half goals in a Premier League away game for the first timePA
They did not do that for a second against Sunderland. There can rarely have been such a show of collective desire to stay in the Premier League.
There are ways to drag yourself to safety, and this was one of them. Few opening halves of football can have been quite as dramatic as this one.
Forest plundered four goals in 21 minutes. Every time they attacked they seemed to score. Trai Hume headed into his own goal facing the wrong way in the 17th minute, when Igor Jesus headed back across goal and the ball ricocheted in off the Northern Ireland defender. In the 31st minute Robin Roefs’s clearance was so weak that it struck Chris Wood on its way to Morgan Gibbs-White.
Gibbs-White quickly played the ball back inside to Wood and there was a touch and then a clever finish from the New Zealand striker with his left foot to lift the ball over Roefs for 2-0. Roefs punched the ground in fury.
Sunderland’s shellshocked players held an impromptu huddle when the second goal went in. It got worse for them, not better.
Not since 2015 had Sunderland conceded four first-half goalsGetty
Two more arrived in the following six minutes. Gibbs-White crashed a half-volley into the bottom corner of Sunderland’s goal when a corner was not cleared and Jesus then volleyed in an excellent fourth when a free kick was also not cleared.
From 0-0 at minute 16 to 0-4 at minute 37. These are the kind of periods of football that managers dream about when their team are in a dogfight.
Dan Ballard was denied a goal after a VAR check in the 60th minute, for a foul by Nordi Mukiele, but this was Forest’s night, with the Geordie midfielder Elliot Anderson striking home their fifth goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
“Totally, it hurts,” Régis Le Bris, the Sunderland head coach, said. “It is painful and it is a strong reminder about the [reality of the] Premier League.”
Sunderland (4-2-3-1) R Roefs — N Mukiele, D Ballard, O Alderete, T Hume — G Xhaka, N Sadiki — C Rigg (R Mandava 45), H Diarra (W Isidor 65), E Le Fee — B Brobbey. Booked Xhaka, Diarra.
Nottingham Forest (4-4-2) M Sels — O Aina, N Milenkovic, Jair Cunha (Morato 50), N Williams — O Hutchinson (L Netz 67), I Sangare (N Dominguez 45), E Anderson, M Gibbs-White — Igor Jesus (R Yates 67, C Wood (T Awoniyi 88). Booked Williams, Anderson, Jesus, Dominguez, Yates.