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Wood fires for Forest with double in EPL season opener
AP • August 18th, 2025 9:34 am
Chris Wood gets off to a great start with a brace in the opening game for Nottingham Forest | Photo: Nottingham Forest FC
Kiwi Chris Wood was the driving force behind an impressive opening day win for Nottingham Forest as they made a mockery of manager Nuno Espirito Santo's pre-match worries, beating Brentford 3-1.
Nuno expressed his "concern" for the campaign ahead of the match, citing a lack of options in his squad, but he will feel better after watching a rampant display at the City Ground.
After new signings Omari Hutchinson and James McAtee were unveiled before kick-off, their new team-mates put on a show as Chris Wood's double and a debut goal for Dan Ndoye put them 3-0 up at the break. Igor Thiago replied with a penalty after the interval.
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim defended goalkeeper Altay Bayindir after his blunder proved decisive in a 1-0 home defeat by Arsenal in their Premier League opener.
Bayindir flapped at a 13th-minute corner under pressure from William Saliba, allowing Riccardo Calafiori to nod in at the far post.
United were otherwise the better team as new signings Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo revitalised their attack, but they could not find a way to beat David Raya despite registering 22 shots on goal.
That put the focus even more sharply on Bayindir, who started in place of the injured Andre Onana.
United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir (right), cannot prevent Arsenal's Riccardo Calafiori from scoring | AP PHOTO
Amorim said: "I think it's clear. Players are touching the goalkeeper without the idea of going for the ball. That is not allowed."
"It's protecting the attacking guy and saying that we want (more) goals. But when you are touching the goalkeeper in that way, I think it's hard."
Arsenal took the points but in a poor performance littered with poor passes and sloppy touches, the only other things to take away was their ability to win on a bad day at the office.
"We did very well to take the set-piece and then there's the mistakes, some of them unnecessary, some of them unusual, but the way every single player reacted gave us an opportunity to win the game," Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
Chelsea made an underwhelming start as Crystal Palace ground out a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge.
After a truncated pre-season following victory in the Club World Cup, everything pointed to a Chelsea side lacking both preparation and rest as Oliver Glasner's team coped relative easily with a new-look yet disjointed attack.
Eberechi Eze started for Palace despite speculation he is about to leave, and provided the game with its only major talking point, lashing in a brilliant free-kick in the first half that was ruled out after Marc Guehi obstructed Chelsea's wall.
