Premier LeagueWest Ham United 1-2 Nottingham Forest
Tuesday, 6th January 2026
by Johnny Conroy | Forum match thread
West Ham conceded a late penalty in a 2-1 defeat to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest, leaving the Hammers seven points adrift from safety.
The victory for Forest at the London Stadium means West Ham are now 10 games without victory. A huge turn in fortune in the second half of the season will be the bare minimum for Nuno Esp?-rito Santo's side to avoid relegation.In an extremely tense first half, where both sides lacked quality, it was West Ham who went into half-time ahead. 13 minutes into the game, Murillo headed into his own net after a Tomas Soucek flick on from an extremely dangerous Crysencio Summerville corner.
Summerville doubled West Ham's second half lead, but had his strike ruled out by VAR. New signing Valentino Castellanos was deemed offside, despite the striker receiving the ball after a tackle from Nottingham Forest's Nikola Milenkovic.
Soon after the Hammers thought they were two goals ahead, midfielder Nicolas Dominguez scored Forest's equaliser with a looping front-post header from a corner.
In the final stages of the game, West Ham felt hard done by VAR once again. After visiting the monitor, referee Tony Harrington awarded the away side a penalty, judging that Alphonse Areola fouled Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White. The England international slotted home the penalty he won, putting his former manager's job in immense danger.
It was a much improved performance from the Hammers after an abysmal defeat at Molineux on Saturday. West Ham showed immense fight but did not have the ruthlessness a side battling relegation needs in a huge six-point fixture. Furthermore, the home side experienced decisions going against them once again this season. I guess, when you are out of luck, you remain out of luck.
Nuno made four changes from the game against Wolves; Jean-Clair Todibo and Lucas Paqueta returned from short-term injuries, Soucek was brought back into the side, and the Portuguese manager handed Castellanos his first start.
Max Kilman, Freddie Potts, Soungotou Magassa and Callum Wilson were all dropped after sub-par performances at Molineux. However, it is also widely believed that Wilson is on his way out of the London Stadium with widespread reports that the club have agreed to terminate his contract.
It was an encouraging start for West Ham fans as they saw their side start with high levels of energy and some attacking threat. Castellanos would have particularly impressed the fans with his work ethic in the early stages. Summerville was the first West Ham player to force Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels into action, after the winger had a 20 yard effort fizzed into the keeper's hands.
Despite the strong West Ham start, Forest nearly took the lead 10 minutes into the game after Areola made a spectacular fingertip save from a Neco Williams curling effort.
The Welsh full back and Callum Hudson-Odoi linked up on the left hand side, not for the final time, before Williams cut in on his right foot and curled a shot from just outside the area towards the top right hand corner. It was a fantastic save and the first scare for West Ham.
However, the home team responded magnificently and put themselves 1-0 up in a must-win game. Summerville delivered a dangerous in-swinging corner towards the front post, Soucek flicked the ball on, and Murillo headed into his own net. It was the 13th time Nottingham Forest had conceded from a corner this season.
West Ham looked to further expose the out-of-form Forest defence with both Summerville and Castellanos stretching their backline. The Argentine striker had a half chance 28 minutes into the game when he could not time a volley 12 yards from goal that stemmed from a dangerous Soucek cross. The Czech midfielder's return to the side troubled Nottingham Forest in the first half.
With the final meaningful attack before half-time, Forest came agonisingly close to equalising. Williams found Hudson Odoi on the left-hand flank, before the winger cut in on his right foot 20 yards from goal and powerfully struck an effort onto West Ham's crossbar. Despite diving full-stretched, Areola was nowhere near saving the ball.
Sean Dyche made the only half-time change, bringing on Frenchman Dilane Bakwa for fellow winger Omari Hutchinson. Right winger Hutchinson being brought off perhaps signalled what an impressive first 45 minutes Ollie Scarles had. The 20-year-old was extremely solid defensively and showed attacking promise when he needed to.
Within a few second half minutes, there was a VAR check for a Nottingham Forest penalty. More impressive play from Williams saw the Welshman drive into the Hammers box before being well tackled by Mavropanos. The ball eventually fell to Dominguez whose shot was deflected wide. Dominguez accused Soucek of blocking his shot with a hand. However, replays clearly showed it came off the Czech's knee.
Less than two minutes later, the Hammers thought they were in dreamland when Summerville found the net for the first time since October 2024. It was brilliant play from the Dutchman, as he sparked a counter attack, shrugging off Gibbs-White, breezing past Elliott Anderson and was ultimately tackled by Milenkovic. After a blocked Kyle Walker-Peters shot, the ball fell back to the winger, where he cooly chested the ball down and smashed a volley into the bottom corner to put West Ham 2-0 up.
Despite all of that, Castellanos was judged to be offside by VAR and the goal was consequently ruled out. According to the laws of the game, it was the wrong decision though. Milenkovic tackles Summerville, leading to the ball to fall for an offside Castellanos. However, because it was a deliberate challenge by the Serbian defender, there was no offence from the Hammers' new signing and the goal should have stood.
It was a huge let-off for Forest, and within five minutes, they found an equalising goal. An identical corner delivery to West Ham's opener saw Dominguez massively loop a header from the front post into the far corner.
The midfielder's effort evaded everyone, including the diminutive Walker-Peters who attempted to clear the ball of the line with a jumping header. It was a one in a million headed goal, and one that perfectly illustrates West Ham season. You could also say that the goal will unfortunately be the most costly in our season.
If West Ham remained ahead, Nuno would have almost certainly applied extremely defensive tactics, so his side could ensure a fourth Premier League victory. If the Hammers won tonight, they would have gone one point behind their 17th placed opponents, who also have European fixtures to contend with for the foreseeable future.
Nuno looked to respond to Forest's goal as he made two changes. New striker signing Pablo Felipe and academy graduate Ezra Mayers came on for Paqueta and Scarles respectively. Rather strangely, this did not mean a switch to two strikers, instead meaning Pablo playing as an offensive midfielder, a position he has rarely played.
The Brazilian striker was well in the action however. Firstly, Pablo smashed a shot high and wide minutes after he came on. Soon after though, the forward turned creator when he beautifully fed Walker-Peters in behind the Forest defence with a cute pass. The full back's powerful shot was well saved by Sels before the Belgian goalkeeper prevented a short-distance rebound from Castellanos.
West Ham continued to have late chances when Mayers excellently found Jarrod Bowen with an exquisite pass as the winger glided beyond Williams. The captain was through on goal. Nine time out of ten, the ball would have been buried into the net, but not today. Bowen took too many touches and Murillo found enough time to rather impressively prevent the winger from having a shot on goal.
With less than five minutes remaining, disaster struck for the Hammers. Despite no Nottingham Forest players appealing, the referee was sent to the VAR monitor and check a penalty.
Areola had collided with Gibbs-White in the box, but this collision only came because Soucek had successfully cleared the ball from a free kick. If Soucek had not cleared the ball, Areola would have punched clear. There was clear contact from Areola's left hand on Gibbs-White, but that was largely because of both players' momentum driving them into each other.
Despite all of that, and the promise that every VAR decision must be because of a clear and obvious error, the penalty was awarded. Gibbs-White passed the ball down the middle, Areola dived to his right, and it was 2-1 to Forest. Thousands of West Ham fans began to flood out the ground.
The Hammers could not create any menacing attacks late on in the game, meaning another defeat in what is proving to be a horrible season.
In truth, it was not a terrible West Ham performance. They were the better team for large periods of the game but had two huge decisions go against them. West Ham players and fans will understandably be thinking that everything is against them right now.
The bitterly painful defeat for Nuno against his former club means his win record at West Ham falls to an extremely poor 12.5 per cent. That is the worst in West Ham's Premier League history. More concerningly, the club are now seven points from safety 21 games into the season. No Premier League club has ever survived from this position.
Nuno's team next play in the FA Cup against Queens Park Rangers on Sunday at the London Stadium, as they hope to build some confidence before facing Tottenham Hotspur the following weekend.
Manager's Rating
Nuno Espirito Santo: 5/10 Positive line-up where he fielded new signing Taty Castellanos. Looked as if his tactics were effective in the first half as we were in leading at half-time, plus, Forest's only chances came from outside the box. However, the decision to take off the impressive Scarles was strange. The decision to bring on Pablo in midfield was even stranger.
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Click to view all West Ham United vs Nottingham Forest match reports Click to view all match reports by Johnny Conroy Like to share your thoughts on this article? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.Player Ratings
Alphonse AreolaPersonally, I don?EUR(TM)t think it was a penalty, but he gave the referee a decision to make. Made a great save in the first half, however, his distribution was poor throughout.
Kyle Walker-Peters
Defensively solid all game. Also played an important role in many of our attacks.
Ollie Scarles
Excellent performance from Scarles, who has performed admirably since that mistake against Fulham. Kept Hutchinson extremely quiet and showed promise when going forward. Can feel hard done by his substitution.
Konstantinos Mavropanos
West Ham were much more solid defensively today. Mavropanos made no mistakes and was solid from balls coming into the box. Not his fault for either of the goals.
Jean-Clair Todibo
A reasonable display from the Frenchman. He was left untroubled for the majority of the game and had a good partnership with Mavropanos. Despite that, he missed a header that led to the corner for Forest?EUR(TM)s first goal.
Mateus Fernandes
Really quiet game from Fernandes. Wouldn?EUR(TM)t say he did anything wrong, but was not at his creative best.
Tomas Soucek
Really good first half performance where he displayed lots of attacking threat. Won lots of aerial duels and was a key reason Forest could not get a foothold in the game.
Lucas Paqueta
Like Fernandes, did not get involved in the game. However, unlike the Portuguese midfielder, lost possession a couple of times in his own half.
Crysencio Summerville
At times frustrating, but certainly West Ham?EUR(TM)s most dangerous attacker. Great cross for opening goal. Very harshly denied first goal of the season. Very encouraging signs for his form.
Jarrod Bowen
Certainly not his usual self. Did not get involved in the game and lacked that clinical touch in front of goal he is used to.
Valentin Castellanos
Worked incredibly hard and caused problems by running through the channels. However, lacked conviction with the one chance he had, plus a few occasions where a key pass by himself was missing.
Substitutes
Ezra Mayers(Scarles 64') Did nothing wrong defensively once again, and played a brilliant fizzed ball into Bowen?EUR(TM)s feet.
Pablo Felipe
(Paqueta 64') Blazed a half chance over the bar but linked up well with Walker-Peters. Looking forward to seeing what he can do up front.
Freddie Potts
(Fernandes 80') No comment.
Mads Hermansen
Did not play.
Max Kilman
Did not play.
Guido Rodriguez
Did not play.
Soungoutoo Magassa
Did not play.
Mohamadou Kante
Did not play.
George Earthy
Did not play.
Match Facts
West Ham United: Alphonse Areola, Kyle Walker-Peters, Ollie Scarles, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jean-Clair Todibo, Mateus Fernandes, Tomas Soucek, Lucas Paqueta, Crysencio Summerville, Jarrod Bowen, Valentin Castellanos.Goals: Murillo (OG) 0 .
Booked: None booked. .
Sent Off: None sent off. .
Nottingham Forest: .
Subs not used: .
Goals: .
Booked: .
Sent off: None.
Referee: .
Attendance: 0.
Man of the Match: .