Micah Richards picks out five Nottingham Forest players who have really impressed him

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Nottingham Forest have made a strong start to the Premier League campaign and the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday showcased an improvement under Nuno Espirito Santo.

The Portuguese boss has sorted the team’s form out away from home even if he’s still striving for a winning formula at home.

Evangelos Marinakis considered sacking Espirito Santo on two occasions last season but now, he must be mightily glad that he chose against that decision.

Even pundits are starting to respect the work that the Forest head coach has done. Jamie O’Hara was full of praise for Espirito Santo as he watched the game for Sky Sports.

The Forest start to the season has perhaps been a bit of a surprise. With 10 points from seven matches, the Reds can definitely start to look up during the 2024/25 campaign.

Against Chelsea yesterday, lots of Forest players produced the goods. Matz Sels was outstanding, whilst Chris Wood also prodded home a fourth goal of the season to impress Ally McCoist.

• READ MORE: Every Nottingham Forest player called up for international duty

Micah Richards picks five Nottingham Forest players who have impressed him

After being written off by most pundits before a ball was kicked, Espirito Santo has been forced to focus on his team and ultimately prove people wrong.

Richards has been discussing Forest on the Rest is Football podcast – and he absolutely sees reasons to be cheerful from the perspective of the Reds.

He’s picked out five players for praise so far this season and he’s suggested that he doesn’t see Forest being involved in the fight against relegation.

Richards said: “They have got some players, Forest, though, haven’t they? I really like the manager as well, Nuno.

“Chris Wood has been playing out of his skin, scored again, held up the ball, Giibs-White in behind him, Hudson-Odoi, ex-Newcastle Elliot Anderson is a really good player as well, Ward-Prowse with his experience.

“They have just got players in there who maybe could play at a higher level but might be squad players. Now they have gone to Forest and they are really key players in what they are trying to do.”

Forest have strength in depth all over the pitch

A look at the bench from Forest’s first game back in the Premier League makes for pretty grim reading.

Alex Mighten, Lyle Taylor and Oliver Hammond were all included among the substitutes and it’s no surprise that the first season was a bit of a slog at times.

In the past two summer transfer windows, Forest have learned on the job and tried to learn from their past demeanours in the market.

This summer a clear shift was placed on signing quality over quantity and a look at the bench yesterday highlights the progress that’s been made.

Forest have now signed exceptionally talented footballers, lowered the average age of the squad and every player desperately wants to get in the team.

Espirito Santo and the recruitment team deserve a huge slice of credit for their efforts in the market and the club now acts like a forward-thinking football club should do in the Premier League.