West Ham United's hopes of Premier League survival suffer further blow after defeat to Nottingham Forest
The result puts a seven point gap between the Hammers and Forest, who sit one place above the drop-zone
West Ham United's hopes of surviving relegation took another blow after suffering defeat at home to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest.
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The Hammers fell to a 2-1 defeat despite taking the lead at the London Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The hosts may point to two controversial VAR decisions, a disallowed goal for offside and a late penalty award converted by Morgan Gibbs-White for Forest’s winner, but ultimately came off second best.
The result takes Sean Dyche's Forest side seven points clear of West Ham, who sit in the relegation zone.
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West Ham took the lead after 13 minutes, when Tomas Soucek flicked on Crysencio Summerville's corner, leading to Murillo heading past his own keeper.
Forest were inches from equalising shortly before half-time when Callum Hudson-Odoi’s swerving, dipping effort clipped the crossbar.
Early in the second half a brief VAR check cleared Soucek of a suspected handball in the area, although Forest should at least have had a corner.
Play moved to the other end and when Kyle Walker-Peters’ shot was blocked it fell for Summerville to lash home, only for VAR to spot Taty Castellanos was offside – some time earlier – in the build-up.
It was a pivotal moment, as seconds later Forest equalised when Nicolas Dominguez met Elliot Anderson’s corner at the near post and his header looped up and over Walker-Peters at the far post.
Nuno Espirito Santo sent on his second new forward, Pablo Felipe, before the Hammers boss’ frustration got the better of him when he was yellow-carded for protesting against the decision not to give what looked a clear foul on Summerville.
Matz Sels made a fine double save to deny Walker-Peters and then Castellanos on the follow-up, before Jarrod Bowen was thwarted by a last-ditch Murillo block.
The winner came after Areola came out to clear another corner only to catch Gibbs-White in the face, with referee Tony Harrington eventually giving the spot-kick for the Forest captain to smash home.
The hosts were without forward Callum Wilson, who is understood to have already negotiated his departure having been removed from the squad earlier in the day.
Instead the club have gambled on new signings with Castellanos, the £28million capture from Lazio, handed an immediate debut little more that 24 hours after arriving in east London.