The Reds were backed in the summer by Evangelos Marinakis who tasked his recruitment team with signing quality over quantity to improve the squad.
Lessons were learned in the market and Nikola Milenkovic in particular has caught the eye with Henry Winter singling him out for praise.
Forest thrashed Leicester 3-1 at the King Power Stadium on Friday, with the scoreline flattering Steve Cooper’s team following a Foxes capitulation in the second half.
Gary Neville was impressed with Elliot Anderson – another summer signing – with Chris Wood scoring two of the goals and Ryan Yates adding another Premier League goal to his first one last season.
Arguably the unsung hero of the Forest rise is Nuno Espirito Santo. The Forest head coach has been the mastermind behind the current form and giving him a full pre-season looks like a masterstroke.
Espirito Santo was in the stands again at Leicester and he will complete his three-match touchline ban against West Ham this weekend.
Former Wolves key figure hails Nuno Espirito Santo
During his time at Wolves, Espirito Santo enjoyed a wonderful rapport with the club’s supporters and he’s arguably the club’s most successful manager – certainly in the modern era.
He led them to a Championship title in rampant style and then achieved back-to-back seventh-placed finishes in the Premier League before leaving to join Tottenham where things unravelled for him.
Laurie Dalrymple was the Managing Director in place at Wolves when Espirito Santo was achieving great things at Wolves and he’s taken to X to share his delight at the current Forest boss doing well.
He posted: “In my opinion, one of the best. Not surprised his team is now flying high.”
Espirito Santo will now be hoping to achieve a similar level of success with Forest as he did all those years ago with Wolves when they were making the later stages of the Europa League.
Forest can go places under Espirito Santo
Despite what those who were gutted that Cooper had departed claimed last season, Espirito Santo knows what he’s doing and he deserves respect for what he’s achieved thus far.
It’s not been an easy ride. When he first came to the club at the turn of the year, he lost star players to injuries and the African Cup of Nations yet still managed to keep the club in the Premier League.
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Diff | Points |
| 5 |  Chelsea |
9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 17 |
| 6 |  Brighton |
9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 16 |
| 7 |  Nottingham Forest |
9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 16 |
| 8 |  Tottenham |
9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 10 | 8 | 13 |
| 9 |  Brentford |
9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 13 |
It’s claimed that Marinakis considered sacking Espirito Santo twice but thankfully he didn’t and now the Portuguese boss has repaid the faith shown in him already.
There is still a lot of the current season left to play but under Espirito Santo, there is now a real sense that Forest can truly establish themselves as a Premier League football club.
