'What's the point': Nottingham Forest legend truly stunned by Nuno Espirito Santo decision vs Arsenal

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Nottingham Forest were beaten 3-0 by Arsenal on Saturday as the team slipped to seventh in the Premier League table.

Nuno Espirito Santo will be hard at work in training this week after a second successive game conceding three goals.

Forest have still made a solid start to the 2024/25 campaign and there are certainly a lot of positives to take.

Saturday saw Forest come up against one of the best teams in the Premier League and the Gunners will definitely challenge for the title this season.

Mikel Arteta praised Forest for their efforts during the game but in truth, his team should have probably won by more goals.

Forest were depleted. James Ward-Prowse was hammered by fans on his first start for six weeks and an improvement is needed from him.

Several top players were omitted from the starting eleven and hopefully, Forest can get back to full strength against Ipswich on Saturday.

• READ MORE: Robbie Mustoe thinks Forest missed one player vs Arsenal

Garry Birtles left stunned by one Nottingham Forest decision vs Arsenal

One decision that did take some people by surprise was Chris Wood only being named on the substitutes bench.

Although he’d been travelling to and from New Zealand for international duty, it was anticipated that the top goalscorer would play.

Wood only made the bench, however, with Taiwo Awoniyi starting the game after months without featuring.

It was a decision made by Espirito Santo that frankly, Birtles just didn’t understand.

He told the Forest Focus podcast: “Just on the Chris Wood thing. We’ve had this argument before, what is the point in having your striker sit on his backside on the bench?

“If he’s fit to play, start him and ask him to give you an hour. He might just get us a goal. He puts him on when we’re losing. It’s not right if you’ve got somebody on the bench and they’re able to run and do things, start him! Why not play him?”

Espirito Santo has just told everyone how important Chris Wood is

Birtles’ opinion is a romantic one and perhaps in his day giving the main man an hour to try and get a goal would be the way to go.

However, Forest aren’t blessed with a number of striker options and Espirito Santo has just reminded everyone just how important Wood actually is.

With Awoniyi out of form, the Forest head coach needs his main striker fit for as long as possible and clearly he felt that Wood wasn’t worth the risk on Saturday.

There is no such thing as a free hit in the Premier League but with points on the board, Espirito Santo naturally considered getting some rest into his players ahead of next weekend.