Nottingham Forest were beaten 4-3 by Newcastle United at St James’ Park in a game that threw up some serious conundrums for Nuno Espirito Santo.
Things started so well for Forest. Callum Hudson-Odoi had the Reds in the lead after just six minutes but what followed for the remainder of the first half couldn’t have been foreseen.
Four goals were conceded in 11 minutes by Forest as an all too familiar trait from other years in the Premier League reared its ugly head in the North East.
Alexander Isak scored twice, with Lewis Miley and Jacob Murphy turning the game in Newcastle’s favour with a couple of goals in as many minutes.
VAR wasn’t in the favour of Forest once again. A penalty was given against Ola Aina for handball by VAR who was Peter Bankes – the referee who didn’t give Forest a similar call against Wolves in January.
Naturally, the analysis of the goals and the issues has begun. Ultimately, Forest sit third in the Premier League, however, with big games against Arsenal and Manchester City to come on home soil.
Troy Deeney and Joe Hart disagree over Matz Sels
Hart has already praised Sels this season after some heroics against Chelsea in October. Yesterday, after the game against Newcastle he was keen to defend the stopper again.
Troy Deeney does seem to have a bit of an axe to grind with Forest. After a 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield in September, he didn’t name a single Reds star in his Team of the Week.
On Match of the Day 2, he suggested that he disagreed with Hart over whether or not Sels should have saved Miley’s goal on 23 minutes that fetched Newcastle level.
The conversation went as follows:
Deeney: “Miley gets into a good position and it’s a lovely strike, I think the goalkeeper has to save it but Joe (Hart) doesn’t agree.”
Hart: “Yeah, it only goes through the legs of five players on the way, doesn’t it.”
Hart’s sarcastic response and accurate defence of Sels is exactly why an ex-goalkeeper should sit on every panel when live football is on the television such is the specialist nature of the role.
Sels extremely unlucky vs Newcastle
Two of the goals scored by Newcastle were deflected, one was a penalty which he nearly saved and the other was a decent finish but Sels can count himself a bit unfortunate.
Perhaps the Belgian was a bit guilty of trying too hard against his former club. He flapped at an early cross that should have been routine and palmed it out for a corner when it might have dropped into his own net.
Hart is right to defend Sels for the first of four goals he conceded, however. It’s never, ever been a goalkeeping error in a million years with the effort taking a slight nick and going through the legs of Murillo on the way to goal.
The stopper has kept 10 clean sheets this season – the most in the Premier League – and there is absolutely no need to panic after Sels conceded four at Newcastle, with the 32-year-old comfortably established as the number one.
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