Chris Wood scored twice and Morgan Gibbs-White turned in a sensational display as Nottingham Forest cruised to a 3-1 win over Brentford at the City Ground.
Playing their first Premier League game under new boss Keith Andrews, Brentford weren't a match for a rampant Forest.
It took the hosts all of five minutes to open their account for the campaign as Wood poked home following a corner, and Forest doubled their lead on 42 minutes after Dan Ndoye – on his Premier League debut – made it 2-0 with a superb diving header from Gibbs-White’s clever cross.
Wood’s second goal on the stroke of half-time put Forest out of sight.
Igor Thiago’s 78th-minute penalty reduced the arrears, but it was too little too late for Brentford.
How the match unfolded
Forest wasted no time in getting their season going on the right note, as Chris Wood prodded in after Brentford failed to deal with an inswinging corner.
Thiago, who spent much of last season injured, blazed over from close range in a rare Brentford foray forward, and the Bees were made to pay in the 42nd minute when the impressive Gibbs-White brilliantly created space on the cusp of the area and floated in an inch-perfect cross from which Ndoye steered home.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were in a relentless mood, and their third goal arrived in the second minute of first-half stoppage time as Elliot Anderson’s perfectly-weighted pass found Wood, who coolly finished after rounding Caoimhin Kelleher.
Gibbs-White – who Forest have retained despite interest from Tottenham Hotspur – saw an audacious attempt miss by a matter of inches, though Brentford managed to stem the tide.
Thiago restored some pride after Ibrahim Sangare was penalised for handball, but the Bees never looked likely to offer much of a sting in the closing stages.
Old faces shine bright for Forest
Since Nuno took charge at Forest in December 2023, only Alexander Isak, Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland have scored more Premier League goals than Wood, who will be aiming to match the superb numbers he put up last season.
Wood’s goals looked set to drive Forest to the UEFA Champions League at one point last season, though a drop-off late on means they have to settle for a place in the UEFA Europa League, with their participation in that competition now confirmed.
With a tricky trip to Crystal Palace up next, Nuno will be hoping Wood’s form can buy him time to bed in a glut of new arrivals. Ndoye impressed on his competitive debut, while James McAtee and Omari Hutchinson were presented to the City Ground faithful ahead of kick-off.
Douglas Luiz and Arnaud Kalimuendo are also reportedly targets for Forest, though perhaps keeping Gibbs-White will prove to be the most important bit of business they could have done this summer.
Gibbs-White ran the show in the first half, and his only disappointment will be that he did not get a goal to show for his efforts
Concerning start for Andrews
Despite being something of set-piece specialists under previous head coach Thomas Frank, Brentford conceded inside five minutes from a corner, and there was a clear lack of defensive organisation as the Bees were ran ragged in the first half, and new boss Andrews must have been fearing the worst.
Andrews managed to steady the ship in the second half, but with key players of years gone by like Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard having departed – while Yoane Wissa was left out amid transfer speculation – there are certainly plenty of question marks.
Thiago wasted Brentford’s best chance in the first half, though after an injury-hit campaign in 2024/25, the Brazilian did at least get off the mark with a well-taken penalty.
Dango Ouattara, meanwhile, joined in a big-money move from Bournemouth on Saturday, and will offer plenty to the Bees’ attack.
While losing to a strong Forest side is no disaster, the nature of the defeat will leave Andrews and Brentford with a lot to ponder going into next week’s home encounter with Aston Villa.
Having built a formidable reputation as a tactically flexible side, they were outmuscled and outmanoeuvred here.
Club reports
Forest report | Brentford report
What the managers said
Keith Andrews: "It was always going to be difficult but we made it harder for ourselves. We knew their strengths and we knew the problems they would cause. Set pieces were always going to be a threat. I felt our structure was lacking. We didn't perform in the first half.
"Get back to basics. Basics in the game is a dirty word at times. You have to have an edge and do the ugly side of the game and compete as a team. I didn't think we did that. I saw it a lot in the first half today and it's something we need to address. The second half was a lot better on a lot of fronts.
Next fixtures
Key facts
Nottingham Forest ended a seven-game winless run in Matchweek 1 of a league season (D2 L5), picking up their first opening match win since 2017/18 v Millwall in the Championship (1-0), and first at Premier League level since 1996/97 v Coventry (3-0).
Brentford suffered their first ever Matchweek 1 defeat in the Premier League (P5 W2 D2 L1), and conceded 3+ goals in their season opener at any level for the first time since 2004/05 at Chesterfield in League One (3-1).
Timed at exactly 05:00, Chris Wood scored Nottingham Forest’s earliest ever goal in Matchweek 1 of a Premier League season. He then went on to become only the third player to score twice in the club’s opening game of a season in the competition, after Bryan Roy v Southampton in 1995/96 (2) and Kevin Campbell v Coventry in 1996/97 (3).
Dan Ndoye became the first ever Swiss player to score on his Premier League debut. He was the ninth player to score on his Nottingham Forest debut in the competition, and only the second since their promotion in 2022 (also Callum Hudson-Odoi v Burnley in September 2023).