There were claps and cheers at the City Ground for the final whistle of their 0-0 draw with Arsenal.
A point against the league leaders — whom only Liverpool had prevented scoring this season — is priceless for a Nottingham Forest side in a relegation battle.
That gave them a first clean sheet since December (when they beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-0) and makes it two games without defeat, last managing that in November.
But the positives stop there. Forest have repeatedly raised their level against better teams and consistently struggled to break down bottom-half opposition.
There was always going to be a drop off from 2024-25 but this is a club with a top-half wage budget and European-level squad, who spent €236million (£205m) on signings last summer.
Only bottom-place Wolverhampton Wanderers (15) have fewer goals than Forest (21), who have only scored four in their last six league matches. This was the 11th time in 2025-26 where they have failed to score, the most in the Premier League.
Head coach Sean Dyche is not solely responsible. Five of those matches without a goal have been under him, another five were under Ange Postecoglou, and one for Nuno Espirito Santo at the start of the season.
The frequency of managerial change, and the wild swing between coaches with different tactical preferences and demands, has helped nobody.
The same can be said for the absence of Chris Wood, who has been out injured since mid-October, off the back of scoring 20 goals last term (34 per cent of Forest’s total).
And the final caveat is the departure of Anthony Elanga, the speedy winger who Forest sold to Newcastle United in the summer.
Without his raw pace Forest do not look the same threat on the counter, and his partnership with Wood — he assisted him five times last season — has not been replaced.
What counts against Dyche is that goalscoring issues were a theme throughout his time at Everton.
Forest have tactical flaws in how predictable they are going forward. Dyche will always build his teams to defend first, however they do not need to be so one-dimensional.
They have attempted the most crosses in the league (532), rank 17th for completion rate, and there are only five goals to show from these. Twelve Premier League teams can better that, while the regression from last year, when Forest had the fourth-most goals from crosses (15), is striking.
Average out cross frequency against passes, and Forest cross more quickly than anyone else, 10 passes faster than the league average.
They crossed just as much as Arsenal in the 0-0 draw (25 times) but were half as successful as Mikel Arteta’s team (five vs 10 completed).
Now this approach works well when Wood plays but, in three months without him, Forest have been remarkably ineffective. Just one of Igor Jesus’ eight Forest goals have been in the Premier League. He rarely shows the smart movement or clever positioning of Wood.
Here was a classic situation in the Arsenal draw where Forest cross unnecessarily. They are two-v-three in the penalty area because Martin Zubimendi has dropped off to support his centre-backs.
If Elliot Anderson advances, he could make a four-v-three using the three team-mates facing him. Forest do not get enough bodies into the box.
This was Forest’s best move of the match. They won possession close to goal from smart counter-pressing, and quickly worked it wide.
As a right-footer playing on his natural side, Callum Hudson-Odoi is predisposed to better crossing angles than an inverted winger, and almost finds Jesus. Left-back Neco Williams locks off the back post, and passes low for winger Nicolas Dominguez, nominally a central midfielder. That blocked shot was as good as it got.
Their threat, without creating anything significant, was summed up in the 94th minute.
William Saliba heads clear from Omari Hutchinson’s stood-up cross, and Williams again lands on the second ball to keep things alive. There is an alarming lack of box presence or movement, and Hudson-Odoi’s inswinging delivery goes over everyone — he throws his arms up after in frustration.
Dyche was asked about a reliance on crosses after Forest attempted 52 in the 2-0 home defeat to Everton at the end of December (only Bournemouth, with 54 against West Ham, have crossed more in a Premier League game this season).
“It’s one of the challenging situations of finding balance between mixing our play to be effective, but playing in a way that we think is suited to the players,” he said. “We’re still working on that.
“Lots of passes, lots crosses but I don’t think they (Everton) were massively in trouble. But if you win that 1-0, everyone says ‘(that’s) a totally dominant display,’” he added, needing a hypothetical to justify the tactic.
There is an alarming lack of attacking patterns, combination play, runs beyond the ball, or even the counter-attacks from which Forest were effective last season.
So where next? This is a team filled with senior internationals like Morgan Gibbs-White, Anderson, Ibrahim Sangare, Murillo, Ola Aina, Jesus and Williams.
Quality is not an issue but they are playing their way into a relegation battle. Even if last season’s seventh-place finish was an overachievement, to be 10 places lower, even while juggling European football, is a massive underperformance.