Seventh heaven for Nottingham Forest as Chris Wood helps hammer sorry Brighton

Chris Wood’s magnificent vein of form continued as his hat-trick helped Nottingham Forest to their biggest top flight win in 34 years with a brutal 7-0 thrashing of Brighton at the City Ground.

Nuno Espirito Santo was looking for a response following their 5-0 defeat at Bournemouth last week and his side responded in style.

Brighton simply could not deal Morgan Gibbs-White, who was at the heart of Forest’s stylish first-half showing as he forced Lewis Dunk into putting in his own net before scoring one of his own to put the hosts in a commanding position.

Anthony Elanga provided Gibbs-White’s header from a clever corner routine and chalked up his second assist of the afternoon when he put one on to the head of Wood.

Elanga completed a hat-trick of assists when set up Wood’s second and the New Zealand striker followed suit in the goals column when he tucked away a penalty before Neco Williams and Jota Silva finished the rout for Forest’s biggest Premier League victory since April 1991, when they beat Chelsea 7-0.

In typical fashion, the home side drew first blood with their first foray forward.

Gibbs-White darted into space and sent a teaser into the box which forced Dunk to stick a leg out and turn the ball into his own goal.

Forest doubled their advantage in the 25th minute after Wood’s initial effort was blocked out for a corner, Elanga whipped the ball on a sixpence for Gibbs-White to powerfully glance into the roof of the net.

Matz Sels was called into the action for the first time as he scrambled off his line to deny Danny Welbeck’s one-on-one effort.

Brighton were simply not at the races and were in danger of being totally ripped apart before the break – the conductor of the orchestra, Gibbs-White, continued to