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Sunderland continued their dream start back in the Premier League as Omar Alderete’s first-half goal elevated them into the Champions League places but for Nottingham Forest, for whom qualifying for Europe was not enough for Nuno Espírito Santo to keep his job beyond the season’s first international break, the wait for Ange Postecoglou’s first win in charge at the City Ground stretches to five games.
Postecoglou took an understandably low-key approach to entering the City Ground dugout for the first time as Forest manager before the game, but it was the Sunderland fans who were celebrating come full-time after Alderete, their Paraguayan defender signed for £10m from Getafe in the summer, headed in the winning strike.
Forest dominated the second half, Robin Roefs making a sequence of excellent saves and Chris Wood having five efforts alone, but Sunderland’s doughty defending and good organisation earned them this win. With Postecoglou making five changes from Wednesday’s Europa League draw with Real Betis, and with Morgan Gibbs-White and Ryan Yates named among the substitutes, Chris Wood started as a fresh Nottingham Forest captain on his recall to the starting XI.
Sunderland may have been exceeding neutrals’ expectations but they are still content to soak up pressure and play on the counterattack. It worked for most of their successful campaign in the Championship after all. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Some Forest fans could have been forgiven for saying this about Nuno’s reign at the City Ground.
With the king gone, the one who led them into the Europa League, will it be long live the king, the one who actually won the competition last season? Sunderland’s gameplan and Postecoglou’s predilection for possession meant Forest were freed up for plenty of possession practice. They had more than 60 per cent of the ball in the first half, with 91 per cent pass accuracy.
The contrast with their style from the Nuno era was marked. But apart from Wood heading just off target three times in this period, twice from great crosses by Neco Williams, there was little threat of a Forest goal. It was Wood who allowed his man to run off him when Sunderland went ahead shortly before half-time. Although there was justifiable debate over who had fouled whom when Nicolás Dominguez and Trai Hume tussled for a loose ball, once Tony Harrington awarded the free-kick – and a yellow card to Dominguez for simulation, to add insult to injury – Forest should have switched on. Instead, from Granit Xhaka’s delivery, Alderete stole round the back to head in, the celebrations in the away end delayed as Matz Sels’ hand slowed the ball as it entered the net.
With only one defeat now in their first six games back at this level, after two recent promotions, Sunderland’s acclimatisation has started superbly, notwithstanding the mass turnover of players in the summer. Kudos is due to Régis Le Bris for the implementation of his strategy.
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Forest needed to get their fire going again. The introductions of Gibbs-White, at half-time, and Callum Hudson-Odoi and Igor Jesus, a quarter of an hour later, helped fan the flames of the City Ground roar. Roefs was required to repel rasping efforts from Omari Hutchinson and Elliot Anderson after Igor Jesus’s initial strike was blocked. Sunderland were almost playing a 6-3-1 formation by this stage, defending as stoically in the second half as they had been strategically in the first. Hutchinson did well to beat his man and cross for Wood to sidefoot goalwards at the near post, only for Roefs to save brilliantly, and then Wood glanced wide with another header from the same source.
Sunderland, however, stood firm, enjoying a moment of relief when Dan Ballard went down the other end and fired just over after a rare corner.
