Former Arsenal legend, Paul Merson, believes Taiwo Awoniyi’s goal-scoring fine form can save Nottingham Forest from relegation from the Premier League to Championship this season as the league approaches ending during an interview with Sky Sports.
Since Steve Cooper began to play Taiwo Awoniyi again, he has netted a brace twice in successive games for Forest, against Southampton and Chelsea, taking his tally to 9 this season and becoming first Forest player to achieve this feat since 1995.
“For Forest to go 2-1 down and draw 2-2, it’s a massive, massive point”
“Awoniyi, who scored the two goals, was a threat. He held the ball up well. I saw him the other week playing away from home, and he was taken off, he didn’t do well.
“Now he (Awoniyi) looks like a handful, he’s holding it up and playing it simple and scored two goals. They were simple.
“With him playing like that with a couple of games left, I’d be quite shocked if Nottingham Forest went down from here. To come back with that away record is very, very good.”
He added, “I think it’s going to be hard for the others to catch them. Leicester are virtually going to have to win two out of their three games. It’s a hard one. That point was huge for Forest. They need four out of their last six points.
“They go into the game against Arsenal with a couple of good recent results against them at home. It will be a hard game for Arsenal. If Forest plays like this on the counter-attack, they could pick them apart and cause problems. Arsenal will cause major problems down the other end.
“I think Forest will stay up. Leeds have to win one out of their last two games at least and I’m not sure Leicester can win two out of theirs”
