West Ham 1-2 Nottingham Forest: Gibbs-White penalty decides crucial six-pointer | OneFootball

Morgan Gibbs-White’s late penalty kick earned Nottingham Forest a 2-1 comeback win over West Ham in a Premier League six-pointer at the London Stadium.

The Hammers took the lead after a corner deflected in off of Brazilian centre-back Murillo, yet Nicolás Domínguez levelled from the same scenario after the restart.

Gibbs-White smashed home from the spot in the penultimate minute to extend the gap to the hosts in 18th to seven points, while avoiding a fifth straight defeat.

As it happened

New boy Taty Castellanos – who arrived from Lazio earlier in the week – had the first opening on the counter after two minutes, but Matz Sels easily saved his shot.

At the other end, Alphonse Areola had to produce a brilliant save with his fingertips, acrobatically diving to his left to deny wing-back Neco Williams’ curler from distance.

Yet to register a Premier League clean sheet this season, the Frenchman failed to get enough distance on the punch and his blushes were saved as Williams fired wide.

Forest dominated the first quarter of an hour, but couldn’t carve out an clear chance before a clearance from Omari Hutchinson deflected behind off of his foot.

Crycensio Summerville’s dangerous near-post cross was flicked on by holding midfielder Tomáš Souček and diverted into the net by the unknowing Murillo.

The crucial six-pointer near the foot of the table proved cagey for the next half an hour, as Callum Hudson-Odoi went closest to scoring by striking the crossbar after cutting inside from the left wing.

Jarrod Bowen nearly got off to flying in the second half, receiving the ball in the channel and driving straight towards goal – only to lift a disappointing shot high over Sels’ goal.

Forest, who were lauded for their counter-attacking play under West Ham manager Nuno Espírito Santo, fell victim this time around as the hosts intercepted a weak cross from Ola Aina and broke away into the space he left behind.

Lucas Paquetá’s cross found Kyle Walker-Peters, whose deflected shot was chested down cooly and fired into the bottom left corner by Summerville – but it was ruled out as VAR spotted Paquetá offside during the build up.

Sean Dyche’s men took full advantage moments later, as Domínguez sent a header looping into the net just before the hour mark – the 12th goal conceded from a corner by West Ham this season.

West Ham were steadily ramping up the pressure, and Walker-Peters’ vicious shot from a tight angle on the right produced a fine save from Sels following a neat through ball from Pablo, making his debut from the bench.

However, Gibbs-White went down after a free kick with minutes left of normal time, and replays appeared to show Areola catching the Forest skipper in the face.

His second miscued punch proved immensely costly, as Gibbs-White blasted the resulting penalty down the middle and into the net for the winner.

Fans may look back on his spot kick as a crucial moment in the fight to stay in the Premier League, as it handed Nottingham Forest a seven-point advantage over the lowly Hammers.

A tale of set piece struggles

As a new dawn of set pieces rises in the top flight of English football, two teams are still struggling to find an answer: West Ham and Nottingham Forest.

With 12 goals scored against them from corners, the Hammers are the only team to best Forest’s eight – and both paid the price for poor defending in such scenarios.

The hosts were clever in setting up the corner that bagged the opener, placing the towering Souček and Paquetá at the near post to prevent Igor Jesus from heading clear.

Such a strategy – blocking off players’ paths to the ball inside the penalty area – has been a hallmark of leaders Arsenal’s approach that has proven so successful in recent years.

But West Ham are also rather poor at defending their box with the ball in the air numerous times this season, and that frailty was on show when Domínguez rose highest to head in the equalizer.

Lo and behold, miscommunication and an erroneous punch from Areola resulted in the penalty that left them in a desparate position in the relegation zone.

As for Nottingham Forest, their season just got a whole lot better.

The line-ups

WHU: Areola; Scarles, Mavropanos, Todibo, Walker-Peters; Fernandes, Soucek; Summerville, Paquetá, Bowen (C); Castellanos