Nottingham Forest will be playing Premier League football next season as they City Ground celebrated with a huge sigh of relief following the win over Arsenal.
Taiwo Awoniyi’s 19th minute goal was enough to earn Steve Cooper ’s men all three points in a game that had an impact on both ends of the table. As well as securing Forest’s Premier League safety, the result also ended Arsenal’s title challenge, handing the trophy to Manchester City for the third season in a row.
Celebrations at the full time whistle were all about Forest though as fans can now sit back and enjoy the final game of the season against Crystal Palace next weekend. It means that the race for survival will see two of Leicester City, Leeds United and Everton join already relegated Southampton in the Championship next season.
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Forest will now start preparations for a second campaign in the top division after winning promotion through the play-offs this time last year. It was a memorable day at the City Ground, and with so much riding on the game, the national media were in attendance to follow every kick.
With that in mind, here is a look at how they reported on Forest securing their Premier League status.
The Guardian , Jonathan Wilson
For Forest there was ecstasy: they will be playing Premier League football again next season.
Having apparently dragged themselves to safety once this season, Forest had to do it again. For them, this has been a season in four distinct phases: four points from the first eight games, 20 from the next 13, three from the next 11, followed by 10 from five. There were nine minutes of injury-time, which could have been agony, particularly for a side that had gone 15 games since its last clean sheet, but the truth is that Arsenal rarely threatened.
From midway through the second half, the City Ground anticipated its triumph. By the end, every challenge, every misplaced pass from an Arsenal player, every ball that drifted out of play, was greeted with a great roar.
The Times , Jonathan Northcroft
Manchester City are the champions but who, down by the river at this raucous old stadium, gave a tricky tree about that? The City Ground throbbed with joy and with love — love for their team, because of what in the denizens’ opinion was a much better achievement: Nottingham Forest staying in the Premier League.
Those 30 transfers, those eight defeats in the first 11 games, those 32 days at the bottom of the table during a bleak early autumn, that 5-0 defeat the previous time Forest played Arsenal — they all melted away in the sunshine. Three magnificent points, wrought in sweat, won by guts, ensured Forest’s survival.
What an achievement for Steve Cooper, who has presided over a challenging campaign with such composure.
The Telegraph , Sam Wallace
For Forest this was the great revival that secures Steve Cooper’s team a place in the division for another season. The Forest manager staged a shrewd tactical ambush of Arteta’s depleted team, plundering a first half goal on the counterattack from Taiwo Awoniyi and then absorbing the best Arsenal had to offer. There, in truth, was very little of that.
The Daily Mail , Oliver Holt
This triumph means they are safe and that the remaining relegation places will be contested by Leicester City, Leeds United and Everton. That achievement is a triumph for their manager, Steve Cooper, who has done such a superb job this season and it is a triumph for their owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who stuck with Cooper when other clubs were panicked into sacking their bosses.
Marinakis went through tortures in the directors’ box here but when the final whistle went a great roar rose up from this stadium and rolled across the River Trent and far beyond to signal another season to be spent in the Premier League.
What did you think of the performance vs Arsenal? Tell us in the comments section
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