Pundit blown away by £8m Nottingham Forest star who slips under the radar vs Manchester City

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Nottingham Forest defeated Manchester City at the City Ground as the Reds cemented a place in the top five of the Premier League in a quest for Champions League football.

Forest are in with a shout with 10 games of the season remaining. The Reds have given themselves every chance of a crack at Europe’s elite club competition and the work done by Nuno Espirito Santo has been remarkable.

The Reds had just 24 points at this stage of the 2023/24 campaign and after yesterday’s win over Manchester City, Forest have moved to 51 points with just a couple of months left to play.

Callum Hudson-Odoi scored the game’s only goal in front of Evangelos Marinakis. The owner managed to get Hudson-Odoi to Forest for just £3 million in transfer business that makes no logical sense in an era of over-inflated player prices.

Espirito Santo celebrated wildly at the end of the game yesterday. He is keen to place the emphasis on the brilliance of his players but yesterday he completed a masterclass against Pep Guardiola.

• READ MORE: Evangelos Marinakis makes huge boardroom decision

Robbie Earle hails Nottingham Forest star Ola Aina

In the stadium yesterday, it was announced that Ola Aina was the Man of the Match. Hudson-Odoi claimed the official accolade but the defender was brilliant throughout the game nonetheless.

Earle was in position for NBC Sports in the United States and he was once again in fine form when it came to lavishing praise on a quite wonderful performance from Forest on Trentside.

He felt that Aina was one player who slipped under the radar at the City Ground. He delivered praise on the Nigerian after a display that saw him come up against some top quality wingers.

He said live on air: “I want to mention one player who never gets any plaudits and it’s Ola Aina. He’s been at Chelsea, he’s been at Fulham and he wasn’t good enough. He’s come to this team, he played against Doku and Savinho today and kept both of them quiet. He epitomises what Nuno has done with this group of players.”

Ola Aina stats vs Manchester City

Aina has been a standout performer for the Reds over the course of the last two seasons and last season he was perhaps a little bit unlucky not to be named Player of the Year.

Consistency is Aina’s thing. Amidst a host of attacking talent, the brilliance of Aina does sometimes get lost when it comes to dishing out praise and it’s good that he’s got himself some recognition here.

The £8m-rated Aina made a brilliant tackle on Omar Marmoush in the build up to the goal. He stayed calm throughout the contest and ultimately deserved the Man of the Match from the sponsors inside the stadium.

Forest are making moves to give Aina a new contract. On this performance that can’t come soon enough and hopefully, there will be developments on that in the coming weeks.