This is an extract of The Score. Sign-up up here to receive the newsletter every Monday morning with The i Paper’s verdict on all 20 Premier League clubs
CITY GROUND — What happens when the Premier League’s basement passers collide? On Saturday, we found out, and it wasn’t pretty for Nottingham Forest.
The afternoon began with the league’s most ball-shy teams meeting at the City Ground, Everton and Forest 19th and 20th respectively for passes this season, both averaging 40 per cent possession.
Where exactly the extra 20 per cent would come from transpired into Everton enjoying more of the ball and ultimately getting the win their performance deserved.
It meant Saturday ended with Forest sitting much more nervously in third after wins for Manchester City and Aston Villa below them.
Had it not been for a Murillo mistake, or had Dwight McNeil’s pass for Abdoulaye Doucoure’s winner been intercepted – as David Moyes thought it should have been – then it could have been a point closer to the promised land for Forest, but instead the defeat exacerbates a performance that was lacking in oomph from the start.
Nerves are hard to quantify but they were palpable around the ground, the dizzying reality of what is within their grasp translating into Forest simply being off it all match, and easily summarised by the word Nuno Espirito Santo repeated in his press conference afterwards: “Disappointed.”
The disappointment was evident well before Doucoure’s 94th-minute strike rippled the net, as the hosts rarely threatened, struggling to create clear-cut chances and making for a disgruntled spiral that left Forest fans, rightly, fearing the worst.
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In the main, it was dull, and difficult to escape the feeling Forest could have given more, that this Everton side were there for the taking if only they had shown more endeavour.
But high-octane football would in reality have clashed with Nuno’s principles, the very approach that has made them top-four contenders in the first place. Against Manchester City last month, sitting back worked, as it has done plenty of times this season.
And to make it more complicated, it even worked at Everton away, when Forest had 36 per cent possession but still won 2-0 at Goodison Park in December.
Why change is therefore an understandable question to ask, but at this stage of the season, with Champions League football on the line and a blatant opportunity to take the game to their opponents at home, they didn’t seize the moment, meaning the uncompromising style that has served them so well this time proved to be their downfall.
As a result, the defeat snapped their nine-game unbeaten streak at the City Ground and inflicted a first loss to a bottom-half side all season, a combination that bursts the bubble and sheds a new light on their run-in.
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In Brentford, Crystal Palace, Leicester and West Ham they face four more bottom-half sides who also rank low for possession, meaning Nuno may well have to consider a tactical tweak to get them over the line, particularly if these teams copy Everton’s blueprint.
However, if Saturday is anything to go by, Nuno won’t budge, and that could soon backfire. The four clubs below them all boast deeper squads and better form, and there is now every chance of Forest getting caught by at least three of them.
The Europa League would still be great, really, but from where they were it would be a tough pill to swallow, and with winnable games on the horizon, Forest cannot afford to ask themselves what might have been come 25 May – when they host Chelsea on the final day.
This is an extract of The Score. Sign-up up here to receive the newsletter every Monday morning with The i Paper’s verdict on all 20 Premier League clubs
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