Chris Wood scores hat trick in win for unlikely contender Nottingham Forest

Prolific striker Chris Wood scored a hat trick as Nottingham Forest routed Brighton 7-0 on Saturday for the biggest-ever Premier League win for the unlikely title contender.

Wood, the 33-year-old New Zealand international, took his tally to 17 goals in the best Premier League campaign of his career. Only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (19) and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (18) have more goals this season.

Morgan Gibbs-White, Neco Williams and Jota Silva also scored after an own-goal by Lewis Dunk set the ball rolling at the City Ground for third-place Forest, which is the surprise of the Premier League this season and moved level on 47 points with second-place Arsenal.

This thrashing came a week after Forest was beaten heavily itself, 5-0 at Bournemouth.

“What a difference a week can make,” Wood said. “Last week wasn’t us. Today was definitely us.”

Liverpool, which is six points clear having played two games fewer than Forest, visits in-form Bournemouth later.

Forest battled to avoid relegation last season but now has a great chance of qualifying for the Champions League, which would put the club back in Europe’s elite — where it was a generation ago when winning the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.

There are six games in total Saturday in England’s top division, including Newcastle hosting Fulham and a meeting between the bottom two teams: Ipswich and Southampton.