Gibbs-White strikes the Hammer blow to heap  pressure on Nuno

Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White (left) and Nikola Milenkovic celebrate. Pic: Bradley Collyer/PA Wire.

Premier League: West Ham 1 Nottingham Forest 2 

A defeat by West Ham ended up costing Nuno Espirito Santo his job as Nottingham Forest manager in August. Now a defeat at home to his former employers might see him sacked by the Hammers.

January is a precarious month for managers at the wrong end of the table and late penalty clincher from Morgan Gibbs-White - one of his best performers at Forest - was a Hammer blow if ever there was one.

Had third-bottom West Ham won they would have been just a point behind Forest, who might have lost patience with Sean Dyche after five straight defeats.

That run stopped at four however and it is West Ham, win-less in 10 now, staring down the barrel of a seven-point chasm. Championship football is rushing towards the London Stadium and Nuno seems powerless to stop it.

"Sacked in the morning," sang the Forest fans, cruelly given what Nuno had given them - European football this season for one.

It all went wrong for him in August however - and for West Ham, then in the last days of Graham Potter's tenure.

Nuno drew up the blueprint used in the last few days by Enzo Maresca and Ruben Amorim by going public on the the way the club was being run to get himself fired.

The reason for his displeasure? The summer arrival of Edu as head of global football, which put a communication barrier between him and owner Evangelos Marinakis.

Yet the revenge he must surely have craved never came. Dyche and former Arsenal man Edu had been feeling the wrath of the big-bellied but short-tempered Greek over the last couple of weeks. But not so much now.

Inevitably both sides made changes from their most recent disappointments. Taty Castellanos, the 23m Euro arrival from Lazio, was thrust straight into a West Ham line-up that also saw Lucas Paqueta return from injury.

Forest's most significant adjustment was bringing back Matz Sels, arguably the best goalkeeper anywhere last season, in place of the injured John Victor.

It was West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola who was required to make the first save of note, tipping over Neco Williams' attempt to find the top corner from distance.

West Ham supporters, who have long been in revolt against the club's owners, made little initial noise to help rouse the home side but a 13th-minute corner changed that in an instant.

Crysencio Summerville fired it in for Tomas Soucek to flick on at the near post but it was Forest's Murillo whose header sent the ball beyond Sels, who had not time to react.

The corner had been given away cheaply in the first place by Omari Hutchinson will not have gone un-noticed in the home dugout. The winger was a club-record capture from Ipswich in the previous window but a signing sanctioned by sporting director Edu rather than Espirito Santo, who point-blank refused to pick him.

An inviting chance fell to Castellanos soon after but the Argentina forward miskicked clumsily. West Ham seemed content enough to play out the rest of the half in the unfamiliar position of being a goal up but were nearly caught out when the fit-again Callum Hudson-Odoi curled a shot from the edge of the box that had the beating of Areola but bounced off the bar.

Dyche hooked Hutchinson at the break to send on Dilane Bakwa, which was perhaps an indication of how he felt about that 13th-minute corner.

Jarrod Bowen burst through early in the second period but could not keep his shot down before VAR had a brief look at a Dominguez shot at the other end that flicked off Soucek's arm.

Forest were annoyed nothing followed but then mightily relieved when Summerville's goal seconds later was ruled out by the remote-control officials for offside against Castellanos. It had been a fine hit, too, with the winger chesting down a deflected Kyle Walker-Peters effort and drilling low past Sels.

Again the pendulum swung instantly the other way as Forest levelled from Eliot Anderson's corner. Dominguez flicked it on and saw it loop in at the back post, with Walker-Peters on the line unable to jump high enough.

West Ham sent on their other new attacking recruit, the Brazilian Pablo, in the hope of regaining the lead but he was off target with his first attempt.

Sels saved from Walker-Peters at his near post and from Castellanos from the rebound as the Hammers hammered away in hope. Bowen was next to have a go but this time Murillo was able to block.

VAR intervened again in Forest's favour when Areola came out to punch a cross and succeeded only in socking Gibbs-White, who despatched the penalty calmly down the middle with a minute left on the clock.

West Ham (4-2-3-1): Areola 6; Walker-Peters 6, Todibo 6, Mavropanos 6, Scarles 7 (Mayers 63, 5); Soucek 7, Fernandes 6 (Potts 80), Bowen 6, Paqueta 6 (Pablo 63, 5), Summerville 8; Castellanos 5.

Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Sels 7; Aina 7, Murillo 6, Milenkovic 7, Williams 6; Dominguez 7, Anderson 7, Hutchinson 5 (Bakwa 46, 5), Gibbs-White 6, Hudson-Odoi 7; Jesus 6.

Referee: Tony Harrington