EPL: Survival battle intensifies for Awoniyi, Aina as Nottingham Forest sack Dyche

Nottingham Forest are no longer just fighting relegation. They are fighting themselves.

On a night that perfectly captured the madness of their season, Forest dominated Wolverhampton Wanderers with 63% possession and an expected goals figure of 2.75, yet somehow failed to score. Thirty-five shots. Zero goals.

It was a statistical outlier; the most shots without scoring in a Premier League match since Manchester United recorded 38 against Burnley in 2016, and the final straw in Sean Dyche’s brutal 114-day reign.

By 00:31 on 12 February, just three hours and 11 minutes after full-time, Dyche was gone.

Seven wins from 17 league games. A side that could control matches but not finish them. A club hovering just above the trapdoor. Evangelos Marinakis pulled the trigger, making Dyche the third Nottingham Forest manager sacked this season, and the fourth overall if you include interim chaos.

Forest currently sit 17th in the Premier League, five points above the relegation zone, and staring straight into a relegation dogfight that now feels as unstable off the pitch as it does on it.

A season without a steering wheel

The numbers tell a story, but the timeline tells a tragedy.

Nottingham Forest managerial sackings this season:

Nuno Espírito Santo; announced 00:15, 9 September 2025
Ange Postecoglou; announced 14:42, 18 October 2025 (just 19 minutes after full-time)
Sean Dyche; announced 00:31,12 February (barely hours after FT)

Four managers in one season. No rhythm. No patience. No continuity.

At this point, it’s less a rebuild and more a revolving door.

Despite Dyche’s reputation for survival football, structure, and grit, Forest often looked like a team stuck between ideas too open to be pragmatic, too blunt to be expansive. The Wolves match summed it all up: dominance without incision, pressure without payoff.

For Super Eagles stars Ola Aina and Taiwo Awoniyi, it has been a season spent fighting on two fronts; producing individually while trapped inside a club spiralling structurally.

The bigger picture: A league in freefall

Forest’s chaos is not isolated. The Premier League 2025/26 season has turned into a managerial bloodbath.

Managers sacked so far:
Nuno Espírito Santo (Nottingham Forest) — 21 months
Graham Potter (West Ham) — 9 months
Ange Postecoglou (Nottingham Forest) — 39 days
Vítor Pereira (Wolves) — 11 months
Enzo Maresca (Chelsea) — 18 months
Ruben Amorim (Manchester United) — 14 months
Thomas Frank (Tottenham) — 8 months
Sean Dyche (Nottingham Forest) — 4 months

Forest alone account for three of those eight.

And the madness didn’t stop at the City Ground.

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Less than 24 hours earlier, Thomas Frank was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur, with Spurs sitting 14th, just five points above relegation, after two wins in 17 matches. Another “stable project” imploded. Another long-term plan abandoned mid-storm.

What now for Forest?

Attention has already shifted to Vítor Pereira as a possible replacement, even as fans question whether another appointment; any appointment can survive long enough to matter.

This is no longer just about tactics. It’s about trust. About identity. About whether Forest can stop panicking long enough to build something coherent before the season runs out.

Right now, survival is the only objective. But survival without stability only delays the reckoning.

The Premier League has always been ruthless. This season, it’s carnivorous.

And at Nottingham Forest, the question is no longer why another manager was sacked, it’s simply: who’s next?