Nottingham Forest trounced Sunderland 5-0 on Friday to move eight points clear of relegation-threatened Tottenham, whose fears of the drop grow more rational by the day.
Morgan Gibbs-White inspired Vitor Pereira’s side to ease themselves further clear of the bottom four, where Spurs and West Ham are both looking to avoid joining Wolves and Burnley in returning to the Championship.
The 26-year-old, who scored a hat-trick in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Burnley, starred in a first-half 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’ men, Forest put the game to bed before the kettle for the half-time tea had even been filled with Trai Hume’s unfortunate own goal sparking 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.
Primarily, though, the result heaps pressure on Tottenham in the relegation battle ahead of their visit to Wolves on Saturday. Spurs are yet to win in the league this season, and are losing touch with both Forest and West Ham as they hit late-season form.
With his side now unbeaten in eight, he is increasingly confident of dodging the drop but acknowledges there is still work to do.
“We are in a good moment,” he told Sky Sports. “Because we create the spirit, the mentality, and tactically we have more time together, we are in a moment that we can face every game to get points.
“It is important at this stage of the season to show this mentality, this spirit, this confidence, because we have the character. I am very happy for my players, the supporters, the club. The points we’ve got until now means we need to win more games.”
The hero fo the night, though, was Wood, who scored his first goal since the first day of the season to put Forest 2-0 up at the Stadium of Light.
He said: “(Victory) gives us a bit of breathing room and it also puts a bit of pressure on the two chasing behind. Back-to-back wins does that for you, we'll look to do that again after playing Villa in the cup, go to Chelsea and hope to get the same result.”