“As a fellow supporter, I am sorry for our heavy 7-0 defeat at Nottingham. Nothing went right.”
Chris Wood earned headlines with a hat trick, continuing his rich vein of form in the Premier League this season. Morgan Gibbs-White notched his first league goal for Wolves, Nico Williams’ deflected strike doubled the visitors’ advantage, and Jota grabbed a late goal. A fortunate Lewis Dunk own goal gave Brighton a nightmare start in their first home fixture of the season.
For Forest, it followed a very disappointing loss to Bournemouth in their previous game – their bounce back win over the table-toppers no doubt won the City Ground crowd and Forest’s own hearts back.
The result gives Forest breathing space with a five-point gap over fourth-placed Newcastle, who are yet to play away at Fulham later in the day.
Brighton tasted their second consecutive loss on the bounce and will end the matchweek in the tenth place. Chris Hughton’s men will look to turn the tide during the week as they travel to face Chelsea in the FA cup.
Hurzeler also accepted blame for the defeat in a manner, but he believed the players had a greater share in that responsibility too, “For me, we can only say sorry to every supporter… for this result and this performance,” Hurzeler lamented.
Terry did not single out certain players or moments in the game, which he described as the harshest kind of loss in soccer. He understood that heavy losses implicate teams altogether, not just individual players. The shotcaller reinforced unity and admonished that the team would have to face “each other in the next two days.” Cancio relented, “I think the team has to sit down and say the true thing and talk to themselvesand you know each other.”
Hurzeler doesn’t believe the absence of either Carlos Baleba or Yasin Ayari in the midfield was a major contributor to the match result. He noted, “We were not running, not reacting, these kinds of fundamental things. That’s the bottom line, you can’t play like this in the Premier League and expect to win.”
On the flip side, Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo spoke of his delight at his side’s response in wake of their loss to Bournemouth. In his evaluation of how the team responded, he effectively captured what it means to have resilience in sport. “So, after what happened last week, the answer was good. We take a punch, we stand up. That was fantastic.”
Espirito Santo lamented that in the Premier League, these high scorelines are normally anyyhwere but normal, their recent form prior to the Brighton result counted in their favor.
He conceded that fortune played a part in their first goal, which came at an important time. Once they took the lead, it felt Forest were effective in controlling the game and, in the meantime, they effectively snatched-on their attacking opportunities.
“Especially Anthony. He takes three assists; it’s huge! He was amazing today. It’s teamwork, understanding.”
Hurzeler’s contemplation of the match is fair. Brighton can only pick up the pieces of a frustrating outing. Looking toward Chelsea, the Seagulls must get better. They must make adjustments and make improvements, so that today’s loss will be hard to replicate in the future.
For aficionados and pundits then, the game is an exemplar of football’s omnipresence of uncertainty, perennially shifting team pecking orders and identities within the league. Both sets of coaches will be hungry for learning’s to be named a rich side in future team matches.
Brighton will be confident of hitting back next time out, while Nottingham Forest could well look at that as the win that turns their season around.
