Manchester United lost a game immediately after a win for the seventh time this season as they fell to a 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
For so often when there have been wins over a Chelsea, a Fulham or most recently an Aston Villa, around the corner a Bournemouth, a Copenhagen and now a Forest have waited to haunt Erik ten Hag.
A dour first half gave way to a thrilling second, in which Morgan Gibbs-White hit the winner in the final ten minutes after Marcus Rashford had capitalised on a goalkeeper error to cancel out Nicolas Dominguez's opener.
United lost Rasmus Hojlund to illness just days after his first Premier League goal for the club, and they were guilty of their now-trademark limp attacking output from the outset.
Forest began brightly, going close early on via a flimsy Raphael Varane deflection on a cross which flew across his six-yard box with Andre Onana beaten.
It was not until the 33rd minute when United fired a shot at the hosts' goal, Aaron Wan-Bissaka seeing a hit from 20 yards instantly blocked.
"Morgan Gibbs-White with a RUTHLESS finish!" 💥
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 30, 2023
Forest are back in front! 🌳 pic.twitter.com/IjGLZD0fOO
Ten Hag threw Scott McTominay on after the break and, following precious little improvement from his players, Amad Diallo was next to be parachuted in on 54 minutes.
Despite Diogo Dalot rattling the woodwork from 20 yards, the impetus was increasingly coming from the home team and Forest led shortly after the hour mark when a deceptively simple move caught the Red Devils' defence napping.
Argentine midfielder Dominguez waited unmarked for the cutback and slotted home to send the City Ground into raptures, where the opportunity to beat United on home soil for the first time in almost 32 years was within reach.
However, Forest showed they were more than a match for United in terms of handily gifting away games of football.
Matt Turner, whose kicking had been at non-league level all night, was almost punished for skying a clearance in front of Rashford one minute, handed it away playing short the next to give Alejandro Garnacho the chance to run at his defence. A sleek cutback found Rashford who needed no second invitation to fire United level.
And yet, Forest came back to lead again only four minutes later as Gibbs-White capped a breakaway with a lovely finish from 18 yards.
Turner pulled off a sharp stop from Bruno Fernandes' deflected hit in stoppage time to confirm Nuno Espirito Santo's second win in a row as Forest boss, catapulting them to 15th in the table and five points clear of the dropzone - leaving United only three points above a place in the bottom half.
