October saw the Premier League table begin to take some shape as we had another 3 rounds of games, sandwiching another international break and the European/domestic cup competitions. With the relentless start to the season for all clubs and players, we’ve seen some predictable placings so far in how the table is looking, but a few surprises and anomalies due to the impressive or perhaps in some cases disappointing start to the campaign.

This months NextGoalWinner player of the month winner is a leading man for one of the leagues surprises this season as Nottingham Forest were in our predictions to be relegated and Nuno Espirito Santo likely to be on the chopping block early in the season. However, Forest have picked up impressive results over Southampton, Liverpool and Brighton while adding in some even more impressive performances in October.

Chris Wood has played a pivotal role in helping Nottingham Forest to achieve their impressive start to the season, and in October was clinical in his scoring run as he bagged 4 goals in 3 league outings, while also travelling the World midway through the month to bag for New Zealand in a World Cup qualifier. While taking up an almost Erling Haaland-esque display in October, he wasn’t statistically the strongest in many games, but his goals have resulted in an unbeaten month, and the goals have contributed to 7 of a possible 9 points to get Forest up into the European places and looking up the table rather than down towards the bottom end as many (including us) had been predicting.

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Match By Match

October 6th: Chelsea 1-1 Nottingham Forest – Starting off the month, Forest travelled to a constantly improving Chelsea side who put up a stern test. Forest themselves had made a strong start to the campaign, but the loss to Fulham in the previous weekend and then an away trip to Chelsea, it seemed like their good fortune might have been running out. Chris Wood however made sure that the Fulham defeat wasn’t going to linger over the side and put Forest ahead in the 49th minute. Chelsea did have a fair bit of dominance as would be expected and equalised in the 57th minute, before Forest lost Ward-Prowse due to a sending off in the 78th minute. Wood was one of the tactical changes shortly after in the 82nd minute as the visitors successfully clung on to the impressive point at one of the trickier games they’ve had thus far. Chris Wood’s goal began a run of scoring which we will see play out in the remaining games and although tactically his stats don’t always flatter, it’s the clinical nature of his performance like in the game against Chelsea which earnt him a respectable 7.3/10 FotMob rating and set off a very impressive month of performances.

October 21st: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Crystal Palace – Coming off of a world spanning international break in which Chris Wood featured and scored in a World Cup qualification victory for New Zealand over Tahiti, it was back to Nottingham as Forest continued their impressive league run, adding further misery to struggling Crystal Palace. Making it 3 goals in 3 straight games, Wood was the difference maker as he scored the 65th minute winner and rewarded Forest for their fairly dominant display. With almost a switch in fortunes for the 2 sides from the end of last season to now, Forest were in control for large periods while Palace have further questions to answer. Although statistically not one of Wood’s best performances, his goal made the difference and earnt him a 7.9/10 FotMob rating.

October 25th: Leicester City 1-3 Nottingham Forest – Rounding off an already strong month from Chris Wood and Nottingham Forest, they picked up another decent win and pushed themselves into the Champions League positions in the table, with a strong away win at Leicester. Wood added Forest’s 2nd and 3rd to secure the points and get himself to 5 goals in 4 appearances for club and country through the month of October, and an unbeaten month for Forest which included some tricky away trips. Wood’s performance here was statistically his strongest of the month which earnt a 8.8/10 FotMob rating due to his brace from just 23 touches. With a clinical performance leading the line, Wood secured a man of the match award to round off his POTM award winning October.