Nottingham Forest thrash Sunderland 5-0, pull clear in relegation battle

Nottingham Forest did more than win at Sunderland. They blew apart the relegation battle with a 5-0 away rout that left Vítor Pereira’s side eight points clear of the danger zone and changed the shape of the fight at the bottom of the Premier League.

Trai Hume’s own goal in the 17th minute opened the floodgates at the Stadium of Light, and Forest never let Sunderland recover. Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White, Igor Jesus and Elliot Anderson all scored as Forest led 4-0 by half-time, a first-half burst that turned a tense survival contest into a one-sided procession.

The margin mattered as much as the scoreline. Forest moved to 37 points from 34 matches, sitting 16th in the Premier League table on April 24, 2026. West Ham United were 17th on 33 points from 33 games, while Tottenham Hotspur were 18th on 31 from 33, with a trip to Wolves still to come. Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers remained below them in the relegation zone, but Forest’s surge now makes the more immediate pressure look concentrated on the clubs beneath them rather than around them.

That is the tactical and psychological shift this result created. Forest did not nick a narrow escape; they ran riot with four goals before the break, and the early lead stripped the match of any possibility of Sunderland mounting a measured response. Jamie Redknapp called it “the result of the season” and “an unbelievable result,” a verdict that reflected not just the scale of the win but the context of Forest producing it under relegation pressure.

Sunderland also had their frustrations compounded when Dan Ballard saw a goal ruled out by VAR after a foul on Matz Sels, a decision that summed up a night when little went their way. It was a damaging blow for a side whose first season back in the top flight had otherwise carried the promise of a push toward Europe, but Forest made sure the story belonged to them.

Pereira was not prepared to claim safety yet. He said the win “isn’t enough” and that Forest still need “more points,” a reminder that the table has not been fully settled. Even so, this was the kind of result that changes the conversation: Forest have put real distance between themselves and trouble, and the bottom half now looks far more like a straight fight among the remaining strugglers than a race that still includes them.