English Premier League side Nottingham Forest are having one of their best seasons in recent time sitting third on the league standings and with a strong chance of playing European football next season, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Led by Portuguese coach Nuno Espirito Santo, they have surpassed all expectations with their run this season, especially the manner they have gone about it by having less possession yet so effective in the opposition half with Chris Woods leading the line.
Despite their forwards getting the accolades for the remarkable run, the official website of the English Premier League ran a story on why Nigeria international defender Ola Aina is the driving force behind Forest’s success so far.
Below is an extract from the story which was mainly focused on how the 28 year old has rescued points for Forest with his goal line clearance, which is the highest in the league this season.
This season, Forest have the most effective and important goal-line defender in the Premier League in Ola Aina.
Nobody has made more goal-line clearances this season than the Forest defender (three), and all three of his have been crucial to the team’s result.
Back in November, he cleared a Dara O’Shea header off the line in Forest’s 1-0 win over Ipswich Town. Assuming everything else stays the same, then without that block, Forest would have dropped two points.
Then, in Forest’s last two matches, Aina has made more crucial interventions. He cleared a goal-bound shot from Mohamed Salah in the 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool with the scores level in the dying minutes, and in Forest’s 3-2 win over Southampton last week, only an Aina goal-line clearance denied Saints a draw, having fought back from 3-0 down.
In total, Aina’s three goal-line clearances have essentially earned Forest five points: wins rather than draws with Ipswich and Southampton, and a draw rather than a defeat against Liverpool. Five points from goal-line clearances is more than any other player in the league.
In fact, Everton are the only team whose players have earned more points through goal-line clearances in the Premier League this season (six) than Aina. With five goal-line clearances, Newcastle United’s players have won as many points (five) as Aina alone.
