Nottingham Forest have made a very solid start to the season which has left one pundit gushing about the set-up of Nuno’s team

Nottingham Forest have made a very solid start to the season which has left one pundit gushing about the set-up of Nuno’s team

Stephen Warnock says Nottingham Forest have confounded critics who thought they would once again be mired in a battle for Premier League survival.

The Reds enter the second international break in tenth place, having lost only one of their seven matches and with a positive goal difference looking up rather than down the table.

Only four players have scored more than Chris Wood’s four Premier League goals and the Reds have a defensive partnership in Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic which his as good as any for the last few years.

“I think they set up so well,” he said of their draw with Chelsea on Sunday. “When you think to the start of the season I think a lot of people said that they would be in relegation fight. But when you take into consideration they’ve got Morgan Gibbs White, [Anthony] Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi. They’ve got real pace in attack, they can hurt you.

“But Chris Wood’s outstanding. Not only his goals, but being a focal point, holding the ball up, taking pressure off the team. Milenkovic at the back has made them more steady as well so they can absorb more pressure when the team knows that defensively they’re sound but they’ve got that pace and attack, you’re quite happy to sit in then go ‘Do you know what? When we got opportunities, we’re going to hit those fliers, make sure we get up the pitch’. They’ve been clinical.

“The two midfielders are exceptional as well, the relationship that Elliot Anderson and James Ward-Prowse have got between them. There’s almost a father figure to a new kid on the block coming through. It’s that old and young, which is really gelled well and that midfield relationship is solid as well.”