Morgan Gibbs-White inspired Nottingham Forest who eased themselves further clear of the Premier League relegation zone with a stunning 5-0 victory at Sunderland.
The 26-year-old, who scored a hat-trick in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Burnley, starred in a first-half Friday rout as the Europa League semi-finalists established an eight-point gap to 18th-placed Tottenham, who only have five games left to play.
Aided and abetted by a shambolic defensive performance by Regis Le Bris’s men, Forest put the game to bed before the kettle for the half-time tea had even been filled.
Trai Hume’s unfortunate own goal sparked a spectacular collapse amid which Chris Wood, Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus all scored inside six minutes before Elliot Anderson added a fifth at the death.
In the process, they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight games and inflicted the Black Cats’ heaviest defeat since their return to the top flight as they conceded four in successive fixtures, prompting a rare, if mercifully short, chorus of boos at the break.
The result left Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham looking the most likely to be involved in the relegation scrap right until the last day of the season.
“It gives us some breathing room and puts pressure on the two chasing behind,” Forest’s New Zealand striker Chris Wood said. “Back-to-back wins do that for you.
“We built on the second half from last week, that is what we wanted to do. We want to build and get better and show what we are capable of. We started fast and what we did today was fantastic.”
Meanwhile, Roberto De Zerbi has turned to YouTube in an attempt to lift the morale and confidence of his relegation-threatened Tottenham squad.
A winless run of 15 Premier League matches has resulted in Spurs slipping into the bottom three and facing a drop into the second tier of English football for the first time since 1977.
It would be a catastrophe for the ninth richest club in world football, but De Zerbi’s faith in his players has only increased after a 2-2 draw with Brighton last weekend.
Ahead of a must-win fixture at Wolves on Saturday after fellow relegation rivals Nottingham Forest thumped Sunderland 5-0, De Zerbi explained: “For sure my words are not enough and I try to find the best solution to reach every player.
“Sometimes you arrive with a video, sometimes with words, sometimes with red wine, or a beer. I don’t know.
“Sometimes analysis videos but sometimes what they have done in their career, also in other clubs. (Randal) Kolo Muani, if I play with Kolo Muani as right winger it’s because he has played in that position.
“If you go to YouTube, and you go to Kolo Muani (at) Eintracht Frankfurt, you can see he played very well in that position and he scored a lot of goals in that position.
“When I don’t work in my office, I go to find something to be important for me to give more information about the players because we have no time and we have to consider everything to stay up.
“YouTube or WyScout, I use to find something to think what can be the best solution, for the players, not for me.
“Today is April 24 and we have not won a game in 2026. Do you think the players suffer for this? For sure.
“To win a game can give us, give them more energy, more confidence, more positivity but they are human.”
Run home
Leeds United: Bournemouth (a), Burnley (h), Tottenham (a), Brighton (h), West Ham (a)
Nottingham Forest: Chelsea (a), Newcastle (h), Manchester United (a)
West Ham: Everton (h), Brentford (a), Arsenal (h), Newcastle (a), Leeds (h)
Tottenham: Wolves (a), Aston Villa (a), Leeds (h), Chelsea (a), Everton (h)