Vitor Pereira copies Sean Dyche with spectacular Nottingham Forest win over Fenerbahce | OneFootball

Well, that was a very impressive first game in charge of Nottingham Forest for Vitor Pereira. Is fourth time the charm for the Premier League strugglers?

Fenerbahce away in a crunch Europa League play-off clash was a very testing opening fixture for new Forest boss Pereira, who is the club’s fourth manager of the season after Sean Dyche was sacked.

Similar was said when Dyche passed his first test against Porto in the same competition back in October. He had come in and instantly steadied a ship more than rocked by Ange Postecoglou, bringing the sort of defensive discipline and back-to-basics approach Forest had so much success with under Nuno Espirito Santo.

But that ship began rocking again and was heading towards a Championship-shaped iceberg with Dyche at the wheel.

Former Wolves head coach Pereira was Evangelos Marinakis’ choice to avoid that iceberg, but his immediate priority was to navigate a difficult Europa League play-off clash against Turkish side Fenerbahce.

Forest’s start was positive, keeping the ball efficiently and looking purposeful with it. Pereira picked two direct, pacey wingers in Omari Hutchinson and Callum Hudson-Odoi, with Morgan Gibbs-White in behind Europa League goal machine Igor Jesus.

Gibbs-White and Jesus combined for Forest’s second in their fantastic 3-0 victory in Istanbul, scoring after one of Murillo’s marauding runs and shots finally paid off as he drilled the ball past Manchester City legend Ederson.

Jesus had very little to do for his seventh Europa League goal in as many games, but it came via an absolutely outrageous Gibbs-White headed assist. Not what you usually see from your playmaker, as he made an awkward front-post header from a corner and steered it acrobatically to the Brazilian.

The England international added a third in the second half to put one Forest foot into the last 16 of the Europa League.

Fenerbahce are not a top European side – they haven’t won a league title in over a decade – but they were expected to put up much more of a fight.

They have such an incredible Turkish Super Lig team. A midfield three of N’Golo Kante, Matteo Guendouzi and Anderson Talisca is fantastic. Nelson Semedo and Marco Asensio? Proper Super Lig. Even Domenico Tedesco is an outstanding Super Lig manager.

But they were just… rubbish. Surprisingly rubbish. The worst team we’ve watched since Qarabag yesterday.

Forest easily could have failed to show up themselves, or not punished a very poor Fenerbahce side, but they dominated from the first minute and never looked like relinquishing control.

The signs are good. That was an excellent first game for Pereira. But Dyche’s first game was also impressive. We are treading on the side of caution, if you can’t tell.

Yet Dyche is widely viewed as a firefighter – but how many relegation battles has he successfully navigated? One with Everton, if anyone actually thought they would go down in 2023/24. He was sacked by Burnley before the relegation run-in four years ago and got them relegated in 2014/15.

Pereira is a more qualified firefighter. He took over a Wolves side 19th in the Premier League with nine points from 16 games and, less than four months later, Wolves were 12 points clear of the drop zone. Almost exactly four months after his appointment, they completed the league double over Manchester United and confirmed their safety.

We won’t go into how it ended for Pereira at Molineux, but he obviously left with his reputation intact as Forest saw him fit enough to fiight their fire, or get the metaphorical boat back on track, we guess. Even if we are talking about a club who stupidly sacked Nuno and appointed Ange Postecoglou and Dyche. Swiftly moving on…

It could very well be lucky number four for Forest in their managerial merry-go-round. They were very, very good against Fenerbahce and have all but qualified for the last 16 of the Europa League.

Crystal Palace, whose place they stole in the competition, did not have a great Thursday night. They drew 1-1 away to HSK Zrinjski Mostar. Yikes.