Goals from Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White gave Nottingham Forest a 2-0 win over Everton on Sunday to move up to the heady heights of second in the Premier League after another superb performance away from home.
The win gives Forest, who battled relegation for much of last season, 37 points after 19 games. They are five points behind leaders Liverpool, who have two games in hand and face West Ham United later on Sunday.
Forest are one ahead of third-placed Arsenal, who are not in action again until New Year’s Day, and two ahead of Chelsea, who can overtake them if they beat Ipswich Town on Monday.
Everton got off to a bright start as Iliman Ndiaye created the game’s first chance, slicing through the heart of the Forest defence before firing a shot high over the bar in the sixth minute.
That positive opening came to an abrupt end when the visitors took the lead in the 15th minute as Chris Wood nodded a long ball to Anthony Elanga on the counter-attack.
The winger headed it back into his path, teeing Wood up to deftly lift it over the advancing Jordan Pickford and into the net.
Gibbs-White made it two on the hour mark as Wood rescued a broken-down counter-attack by sliding the ball through to him in the penalty area to cut back inside and fire home.
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Everton did their best to knock the visitors out of their stride, picking up four yellow cards during some tough tackles, and defender James Tarkowski sailed close to the wind with a couple of challenges that could have earned him a second booking.
With Forest sitting back and protecting their lead, the Toffees enjoyed plenty of possession and registered 13 shots on goal, but only two of them were on target as their four-match unbeaten run came to an end.
The combination of Wood’s physicality and the speed of the rest of the Forest forward line may have been too much for Everton, but goal-scorer Wood was not getting carried away with his side’s high spot in the league table.
“It is nice, but we are not worried about that. We have got to keep focusing on what we are doing and take it game by game,” he told the BBC.
“It was a hard-fought victory today but a nice one… It is about taking your opportunity when it comes, and fortunately I was able to do that,” the 33-year-old added.
