Raúl Jiménez’s controversial penalty clinched Fulham the win at the City Ground and halted Nottingham Forest’s unbeaten Premier League start. The Mexican converted his 50th goal in the English top flight early in the second half after a lengthy video assistant referee check.
Forest had won two and drawn three of their previous five matches and their highest crowd in over a decade – 30,139 – was denied a first home league win since April. And Forest’s fans were left frustrated as a second VAR decision went against them and Fulham – now unbeaten in their past five league games – had their measure.
Two of the Premier League’s in-form teams failed to find the spark to ignite a largely uneventful first half. Taiwo Awoniyi, who made his first league start of the season, fashioned the game’s first chance as his improvised overhead kick from Elliot Anderson’s near-post flick-on flew wide of Bernd Leno’s right-hand post.
Forest fans thought Chris Wood had given them the lead soon after when he poked home Nikola Milenkovic’s knock-down in the 25th minute, but VAR confirmed the striker was offside.
Fulham had enjoyed more possession up until that point and were tidy with it, but Jiménez’s low shot on the turn two minutes later was their first effort on target. Awoniyi was replaced by Anthony Elanga during the interval and moments after the restart the game was ignited when Fulham were awarded a contentious penalty.
Andreas Pereira went tumbling under Murillo’s challenge and, after checking the pitchside monitor, Josh Smith pointed to the spot. Jiménez converted his third league goal of the season in the 51st minute amid a chorus of boos from the home fans.
The Forest manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, responded by sending on Callum Hudson-Odoi and Jota Silva for Anderson and Nico Domínguez before home supporters were further aggrieved when another VAR decision went against them. Elanga went down following Calvin Bassey’s tackle, but there did not appear to be any contact.
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Hudson-Odoi cut inside to fire over the crossbar and was prominent as Forest chased an equaliser. Jota’s well-struck volley was easily held by Matz Sels and Ryan Yates’s close-range effort crashed against his own player.
Forest laid siege to the Fulham goal during eight minutes of added time, but the visitors stood firm for their first away win of the season.