Nottingham Forest struggles in the English Premier League: A new loss and a third manager in one season
Nottingham Forest began the year 2025 with a disastrous 3-0 loss to Wolves, which contributed to improving their position at the top of the English Premier League. This marks the sixth consecutive victory, an achievement no club in the Premier League had accomplished in a single season since the 1966-67 season, leaving them five points ahead of Newcastle, who came in fifth.
However, things have taken a different turn now. Following a period of consecutive victories, the team has suffered four straight losses for the first time since November and December 2023—a period that ended with Steve Cooper’s resignation as manager of the City Ground team.
Sean Dyche is the third manager for Nottingham Forest this season, having been appointed in October to succeed Ange Postecoglou, whose tenure was short and destructive. Dyche, the former manager of Everton and Burnley, started his mission well, but the decline in organization, focus, and results—especially recently—has been significant.
The team returned in the Aston Villa match and was defeated simply due to errors: a collective stoppage allowed Ollie Watkins to score the first goal, followed by an inappropriate clearance from Joao Virginia from 40 yards that allowed John McGinn to add the third and most dangerous goal.
“You can’t gift basic errors like that to teams like this in the Premier League,” Dyche told BBC Match of the Day. “The feeling is there, but you can’t keep giving yourselves mountains to climb. The footballers were overlooking the basics. We are working on them and showing them, but that is the job. I didn’t expect it to be easy when I arrived here.”
Until Watkins scored the first goal in first-half stoppage time, Nottingham Forest’s plans were working correctly, even if they were very modest. Aston Villa had been suppressed to just one chance—one golden chance—when a defender’s stop early on denied Watkins.
But Nottingham Forest failed to compete. McGinn scored the first of his two goals in the 49th minute to give league leaders Aston Villa a 2-0 technical advantage. Although Morgan Gibbs-White’s goal made it 2-1 and gave Nottingham Forest a brief chance to recover, there was no sign that they would produce an unexpected response.
Gibbs-White told Sky Sports: “I think we stuck to the game plan in the first half. There were several positives to take away. I know we need points, but we showed work ethic and passion. We always know that Villa starts with an upward chase. So the important thing was to overcome that pressure and quiet their fans in the process. We were lucky to score the goal before the first quarter.”
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