Nottingham Forest can start planning for the new Premier League season after an impressive 5-0 win against Sunderland on Friday night.
Sunderland 0-5 Forest: Pereira delighted with ‘fantastic’ Reds
Vitor Pereira challenged Forest to play ‘Champions League’ football and then comfortably watched them leapfrog Sunderland and close to the top of the safety flight.
Forest overcame the Black Cats with a brilliant first half at the Stadium of Light, extending their unbeaten run in the league to six games and moving eight points clear of Tottenham ahead of Saturday’s match.
“Great, great. The Premier League is the Champions League for us, so I asked the team to play at Champions League level,” said Pereira.
“I told them, to beat Sunderland in this stadium, they are 10 points above us, but that means we have to play at the highest level. And in my opinion, in the first half we had a lot of pressure tactically and mentally, we caused a lot of problems from set-pieces, we scored goals, we conceded nothing.”
“In the end, it was important to keep compact and finish the game with just one goal. We scored, we didn’t concede, we kept a clean sheet, (and that) is very important for us at the moment.”
If there was an element of bad luck in Forest’s first goal – Igor Jesus’ header unwittingly hitting defender Trey Hume in the head – there was an air of bad luck in the three that followed six minutes into the first half.
Chris Wood made the most of a mistake by keeper Robin Roofs to extend the visitors’ advantage, and a sweet shot from Morgan Gibbs-White and then Jesus, whose home defense was battered, sealed the points long before half-time, but the death of Elliott Anderson added to Sunderland’s misery.
With four games remaining, Pereira does not think his team is safe. “In my opinion, it’s not enough, it’s not enough, it’s not enough. We need more points and we need to stay mentally. We can’t relax.”
However, the club are starting to make plans for the summer and are currently linked with an experienced international player who is keen to leave the club.
Davide Frattesi to Nottingham Forest: midfielder wants to leave Inter
According to reports in Italy via Sport Witness, long-time Forest target Davide Frattesi is “with his phone in hand” awaiting his departure from Inter at the end of the season.
The Reds tried to sign the 34-cap Italy international in January, but only on a straight loan deal with no option to buy, while Inter wanted a permanent solution.
However, the 26-year-old has 12 months left on his contract and has not started any of the Nerazzurri’s last seven league games in pursuit of the Serie A title, so his price tag will be minimal this summer.
For Forest, signing a top-level midfielder who has won league titles and appeared in the Champions League final could be some way to replace the influence of Elliott Anderson, who is close to moving to Manchester City.
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