Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood has been in fine form for the past season and a half with the Reds on the cusp of something special.
Wood joined Forest from Newcastle for £15 million. He endured a slow start to life at the City Ground but he’s more than silenced his critics to become one of the most clinical strikers around.
Alan Shearer has hailed Wood this season. He’s bagged 18 goals during 2024/25 with his latest coming during a 2-1 defeat to Fulham and the hope will be that he can continue on the goal trail for the final 13 matches.
Eddie Howe didn’t want Newcastle to sell Wood. However, he was keen to secure regular first-team football and his hat-trick at St James’ Park last season offered the Magpies faithful exactly what he’s capable of.
Evangelos Marinakis wanted a new striker during the January transfer window. However, ahead of this weekend’s trip to Newcastle, some stats have emerged that paint Wood in an extremely good light.
Chris Wood outperforms Premier League strikers
With 18 goals from his 25 appearances this season, it’s crystal clear that Wood is one of the most feared marksmen in the Premier League right now and his form is off the chart.
Sky Sports have produced a graphic which showcases players in the Premier League and their performance when discussing xG.
Wood is currently on 18 goals and has an xG of 10.37 which in turn gives him a performance rating of 7.63 – the highest of any player currently playing in the Premier League.
The list of players he’s outperforming in this metric is outrageous with Bryan Mbeumo, Mohamed Salah, Alexander Isak, Liam Delap and Cody Gakpo all currently behind him from a performance point of view.
How Chris Wood compares to Forest-linked Matheus Cunha
Forest tried to sign Cunha during the January transfer window. It’s not certain whether a concrete offer was sent to Wolves from the Reds but that didn’t stop the links from emerging.
Cunha signed a new contract with Wolves. One clause in that new deal was a release clause of £62.5 million which will become active during the summer transfer window – even if Wolves avoid relegation to the EFL.
Interestingly, perhaps Forest would be the best club for Cunha. He’s actually sitting second on the xG list behind with an xG of 5.69 from his 12 goals and a performance score of 6.31.
Forest might not end up landing Cunha in the summer with bigger clubs likely to be keen. However, these stats are very intriguing, to say the least, and perhaps the Brazilian will remain a target for Nuno Espirito Santo.
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