West Ham have turned their attention towards facing Nottingham Forest in the away Premier League fixture after a huge 2-1 win over Manchester United. Although West Ham are gradually finding a good momentum in the ongoing season, the next match is against seventh-placed high-flying Nottingham Forest, who have only faced one defeat from their first nine matches.
One of the biggest reasons for the home side's impressive league results has been in-form striker Chris Wood, who has scored seven goals already in the ongoing league campaign. The New Zealand international joined Nottingham Forest midway through the 2022/23 season and has been one of the best signings made by them in recent seasons.
£15 million in-form striker could be unavailable to face West Ham
Last season, the centre forward found the back of the net 14 times in the English top flight and helped Nottingham Forest to finish seventeenth in the league table and successfully avoid relegation following an underwhelming start to their previous season. That included a heroic brace against Burnley in the final matchday as well, and the 32-year-old has replicated his prolific goalscoring form in this season as well.
Wood has scored in the previous three consecutive matches against Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Leicester City to keep Nuno Espirito Santo's side inside the top-ten league position after nine matches. Thus, West Ham will need to defend well against Wood in order to improve their chances of securing the three points from this upcoming match.
However, Julen Lopetegui's side could receive a significant boost in the match as Wood can be unavailable to face West Ham as he picked up a foot injury after scoring a match-winning brace against Steve Cooper's Leicester City. Wood's absence can provide a good momentum to the Hammers as the 32-year-old forward has scored seven out of Nottingham Forest's eleven goals this season, with the remaining four being scored by four different players.
Although the home side have talented wingers such as Callum Hudson-Odoi and Morgan Gibbs-White, they mostly rely on creating more long through-balls inside the box to provide more goalscoring opportunities to Chris Wood. Also, the Hammers have kept only one clean-sheet this season and Wood's absence can help West Ham to register a massive convincing win in the tenth league matchday.
However, Wood isn't completely ruled out to play in this match and could come as a second-half substitute as well. Hence, Julen Lopetegui's side will need to be consistent in their defensive display throughout the match and it remains to be seen whether they can take consecutive Premier League wins for the first time in this season.