Forest's victory over Saints puts them on even with Arsenal in terms of points.

Nottingham Forest defeated Premier League struggling Southampton 3-2 at the City Ground, overcoming a late scare to tie Arsenal for second place.

In contrast to the Gunners, who wasted a two-goal lead to Aston Villa on Saturday, Forest managed to hold on after giving up a second goal in injury time, and now the only thing separating the two teams is goal differential.

Before Chris Wood helped himself to his 14th goal of the season, Forest appeared to be in control until a hectic last half thanks to two incredible first-half goals from Elliot Anderson and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

In the 60th minute, Jan Bednarek headed a shot from Lesley Ugochukwu over Matz Sels' head. Paul Onuachu then came off the bench to score a second goal in injury time, cutting the lead to just one goal.

Twelve minutes were added on after a protracted VAR wait to affirm Bednarek's score and disallow Forest's fourth goal from Nikola Milenkovic. For the home crowd, the 720 seconds felt like an eternity.

But thanks to a goal-line clearing from Ola Aina and the tenacious defence, Forest's lead held firm.

With the victory, their hopes of playing in the Champions League are now certain, while Southampton's chances of surviving are diminished since they are still 10 points outside of safety.

Nuno: Southampton served as a warning Nuno Espirito Santo, the manager of Nottingham Forest:

"The level of competition in this league has been discussed. Never assume that the game is over. Southampton deserves praise for causing so many issues.

"We had a great start, and things got simpler. Although the second half started off well, it was somewhat odd. numerous VAR rulings and stoppages. It was not very fluid.

"We didn't handle things very properly. I'm glad I won the game. It served as a warning. We need to make a lot of improvements. We are aware of our advantages and disadvantages.

Juric: We are competitive when we act like this. Ivan Juric, the Southampton manager:

"We didn't play with passion or vigour. The first goal was a complete failure. We played the first half at that level, which really disappointed us after the tremendous game against [Manchester] United.

"We had more enthusiasm and scored two goals in the second half. I wanted to watch that team.

"I felt it was my team facing United for the first time. I saw what I wanted to see during the last forty minutes of today. We were competitive when we were like this.