West Ham 1-2 Nottingham Forest: Premier League – as it happened

Here’s your match report from the London Stadium via Jacob Steinberg which marks the end of today’s minute-by-minute action. A good day for Nottingham Forest … who will hope for an even better day in a week’s time against Chelsea. What a game that ought to be at the City Ground.

As always, a big thanks for reading and for your emails today. It’s been enjoyable.

And here’s what Graham Potter had to say:

It was an even game, we concede the early goal from a mistake which is disappointing then we made changes and they scored straight after. Marginal offside that took a while to sort out. Credit to the players, they kept pushing, they gave everything. We just came up a bit short.

Forest are going for what they are and we wanted three points and it was a bit stop start. The goal makes it difficult for the referee. They scored after the subs but then we pushed and pushed, scored a good goal and had other opportunities but fell short.

Here’s Nuno’s reaction:

A lot of stoppages in the game so we were anxious to get the game finished. Until the West Ham goal we were in control. Then the anxiety comes when we allowed the goal and everything is difficult from there. Matz [Sels] did great again so we’re happy.

We started really well. Previous games a lot of bad things happened to us but today that was not the case. Today we pressed good, got a good goal, started well in the second half, on the front foot. Generally a good performance. The players worked hard to put West Ham under pressure.

Premier League Match Centre on the check for Forest’s second goal: “The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with Milenkovic in an onside position and Domínguez in an offside position, but deemed not to be impacting on play.

“The semi-automated offside technology was not available to the VAR in this incident. There were also issues with the VAR communications to the on-field officials.”

We played so long that Arsenal v Newcastle is kicking off NOW. Watch the football, watch it!

Right, as it stands in the Champions League qualification race:

2. Arsenal – 68 points from 36 games

3. Newcastle – 66 points from 36 games

4. Chelsea – 66 points from 37 games

5. Aston Villa – 66 points from 37 games

6. Manchester City – 65 points from 36 games

7. Nottingham Forest – 65 points from 37 games

After a scramble in the visitors’ box, another Sels save, and some very late yellow cards handed out by Sam Barrott, that’s it – game, set and match Forest. They can start thinking about next week’s Champions League showdown with Chelsea now, because those top five hopes are still very much alive and kicking.

They went 2-0 up through Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovic and, although Jarrod Bowen made it very tense late on, Forest survived and clung onto the three points.

We ended up playing to the 117 minute mark thanks to various VAR and refereeing delays.

115 minutes on the clock now and still we haven’t had a full-time whistle. Paqueta and Milenkovic, among others, were involved in a scuffle.

There’s a few late handbags going on between the players and VAR is looking into an incident. It’s all a bit of a mess.

We’ve ticked into the rarified air beyond the 100-minute mark. Forest continue to thwart West Ham’s various attacking attempts. Jota Silva does enough to win the away side a corner, which is ideal for them.

90 mins +8: Forest win it back and Wood only has eyes for the corner flag.

90 mins +7: Forest are interested in wasting time and little else at this late stage … I suppose you can hardly blame them but it could mean we’ll get more than the 11 allotted minutes of stoppage time.

West Ham are coming forward once more …

90 mins +5: Elanga’s final act of the game is to win his team a corner. He’s been really sharp this afternoon, a consistent outlet on the counterattack. What a season he’s had.

90 mins +4: Ryan Yates and Jota Silva are going to come on to try and see this out for Forest.

90 mins +2: West Ham suddenly look like a different team. Guilherme is running into some dangerous areas and Forest look panicked. Wood misses his touch after getting a rare opening on the break.

90 mins: Coufal hooks it back towards Bowen whose shot is blocked. Todibo is then booked, not quite sure why, as his tackle seemed like a fair one.

We’ve got 11 (ELEVEN) minutes of added time!

89 mins: Remember there will be a hefty chunk of added time because of that VAR delay. Murillo has gone down again – not sure whether it’s a reoccurrence of that injury or perhaps a spot of gamesmanship.

Forest are happy to take their time here.

Oooh it’s the most sumptuous of left-footed volleys. The touch to set it up wasn’t bad either! Bowen remains a shining light for this West Ham side.

Nuno looks concerned. This wasn’t in the script. The crowd are up.

West Ham have a lifeline. But has it come too late? Some nervy moments now await for Forest. A quite brilliant strike from Jarrod Bowen.

85 mins: The great thing about this Forest side is how they cover for each other’s mistakes. Elanga played a poor backheel to nobody hoping to keep the ball in play and West Ham broke on it – but they were soon smothered out by a clutch of Forest defenders.

Forest are making their first changes, with Gibbs-White, Sangaré and Anderson trotting off.

On come Danilo, Morato and the fit-again Hudson-Odoi. Back five time?

82 mins: Huffing and puffing seems like the perfect phrase to describe what West Ham are doing. Someone check with Adam Hurrey.

An email from Matt Dale on the VAR delay to end all delays earlier:

Watching the game in a bar with no volume. It looked like the referee was put in a bad situation by VAR (possible tech issues) but I thought he handled the situation very well.

Not sure who the ref is [Sam Barrott] but he looks to be having a good all-round game.

I’m a depressed Man Utd fan so have no skin in this game but I do feel officials should get credit where due and not be an easy scape goat.

Still baffled how long it took VAR to reach a decision. I was always against the introduction of VAR and have seen nothing to change my mind. Maybe managers, coaches and players should just learn to accept on field decisions.

You’re right on the referee, Matt, he’s done well. The VAR situation was largely out of his hands.

79 mins: Potter rolls the dice one more time, bringing Luis Guilherme on for the hapless Kudus.

78 mins: You know when pundits and TV presenters say ‘this has been a great advert for the Premier League’? Well, this one hasn’t.

Forest won’t care, mind you, it’s suited them down to the ground. They’re in precisely the position they’d have wanted to be in.

76 mins: Another Hammers player goes into the book, after Paqueta blatantly pulled back Elanga, who was dashing into more open space.

75 mins: An untimely slip from Coufal almost allows Elanga through to latch onto Gibbs-White’s cross from the right. West Ham scramble clear in the end.

73 mins: Mohammed Kudus is a good player who is having a bad season. But he remains on the pitch as he’s pretty much the best option Graham Potter has.

The hosts were starting to look a little dangerous until Kudus hooked one miles over the crossbar.

71 mins: Lovely play from Soler, dragging the ball back onto his right foot, staying composed and forcing a save from Sels. It opened up for him there.

69 mins: Back in the real world, Forest are on the front foot again, with Gibbs-White winning a corner. He’s been immense today – head and shoulders above everyone else.

68 mins: I’m still reeling from that delay. How can it possibly take that long to decide whether Dominguez was interfering with play from an offside position when it was clear nobody else was offside and the ball didn’t go anywhere near him? Truly baffling stuff.