Sign up now ><\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s massive. For us it gives us a bit of breathing room and it also puts a bit of pressure on the two chasing behind,\u201d Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack-to-back wins does that for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunderland enjoyed the bulk of possession in the early stages of an absorbing contest in the northeast of England but the visitors looked consistently dangerous when they attacked.<\/p>\n
Forest broke the deadlock in the 17th minute when Trai Hume deflected Igor Jesus\u2019 header into his own net, but that gave little indication of what was to follow in an extraordinary opening period.<\/p>\n
Chris Wood doubled the lead in the 31st minute, finishing smartly after Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs gifted possession to the away side.<\/p>\n
Morgan Gibbs-White volleyed home to make it 3-0 and three minutes later it was 4-0 when Jesus hammered home at the back post, leaving mid-table Sunderland shell-shocked.<\/p>\n
The home side battled harder in the second half. Dan Ballard nodded home on the hour mark but the goal was ruled out for a foul by Nordi Mukiele.<\/p>\n
But Forest largely remained in control and rubbed salt into Sunderland\u2019s wounds when Elliot Anderson passed the ball into the net to make it five in stoppage time.<\/p>\n<\/amp-img>Igor Jesus of Nottingham Forest. Photo by Stu Forster\/Getty Images<\/span>Source: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cThis is the result of the season. To go there in the predicament they\u2019re in, an unbelievable result,\u201d former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only imagine what Nuno Espirito Santo and Roberto de Zerbi are thinking. They are probably watching from behind the sofa thinking, \u2018We\u2019ve got it all on now\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Nottingham Forest defender Michael Dawson added: \u201cIt sends a message out to West Ham and Tottenham before tomorrow. Eight points clear of Spurs and what a way to do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo go out and win 5-0, what a night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emphatic win takes Forest to 39 points and the brink of safety. The East Midlands club have had a turbulent season under four different permanent managers but could end the campaign on a real high \u2014 with a Europa League semi-final against Aston Villa to come.<\/p>\n
Attention now turns to Saturday\u2019s matches at the bottom of the table. Tottenham, under new manager Roberto De Zerbi, travel to bottom side Wolves at the same time as West Ham host Everton.<\/p>\n
Spurs, who were last relegated in 1977, are on 31 points \u2013 two behind the Hammers. Both teams have five matches left.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nottingham Forest smashed Sunderland 5-0 on Saturday morning AEDT to pull eight points clear of the Premier League relegation zone, heaping extra pressure on struggling Tottenham. The stunning result at the Stadium of Light effectively turns the battle to avoid the final relegation spot into a two-horse race between Spurs and West Ham, with Wolves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-240180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}