Still, a place in next season’s Champions League is still in the hands of Forest and if they outperform Aston Villa and Chelsea between now and the end of the season, it will be a dream campaign for Nuno Espirito Santo.
With Tottenham away to come on Easter Monday, anxiety is being cranked up within the Forest fan base and ahead of the match, the Reds could drop as low as seventh place before facing Spurs.
There were a few performances that simply didn’t hit the mark against Everton last time out but Espirito Santo is completely convinced that there will be better on Monday against Tottenham.
Nuno Espirito Santo says Chris Wood will play better vs Tottenham
Wood has been the main talisman this season, scoring 18 goals to follow on from the 14 times he bagged in the Premier League during the 2023/24 campaign.
The 33-year-old has missed some games recently but he returned to the starting line-up against Everton on Saturday and tired desperately hard to win something for Forest.
It proved a frustrating day for Wood and he touched the ball just 13 times in his 90 minutes on the pitch. Going forward, Espirito Santo has to discover how to get more service into the striker.
He told his press conference today: “”Of course we have to manage Chris, he has been out for a while. He was unable to play in the previous games because of his injury.
“The effort was good, but not as good as we want. Now we are positive that on Monday, Chris is going to be better.”
Chris Wood stats 2024/25
He might not have scored since the 7-0 win over Brighton earlier this year, but he will get back on the scoring trail before the season is out.
Wood has been brilliant during the 2024/25 campaign and to say he’d had very little time off, it’s quite remarkable that he’s only picked up the one minor injury to his hip.
It was touch and go whether Wood could be available to face Everton and given how little impact he made on the game, perhaps there’s an argument that he was rushed back.
Wood is badly needed on the goal trail again from a Forest perspective and hopefully, with a week’s worth of training, he can be ready to put Tottenham to the sword on Monday.
