Sarah Clapson, Nottingham Forest correspondent for Nottinghamshire Live, says that new head coach Nuno Espírito Santo has made an immediate impact at the City Ground.

Appointed on 20 December, the former Wolves boss has led Saturday's visitors to back-to-back Premier League wins over Newcastle United and Manchester United.

We’re coming to the end of the Premier League’s winter break, which Nottingham Forest entered in 15th place in the table. How have things gone since Brentford’s trip to the City Ground in October?

It has all changed at Forest since then, with the new manager Nuno Espírito Santo having replaced Steve Cooper.

Nuno has picked up a couple of really important wins over Newcastle and Manchester United, when Forest were not given any chance of taking anything from those games. They have started to put in some really positive performances and deserved those victories, for sure.

Nuno has not had long to work with the squad, so he has tried to get his ideas across quickly and got players who had maybe had a slow start to the season firing.

It was not the case in the FA Cup, when they were very much below par against Blackpool, and a replay shortened the winter break. I know Nuno is not happy about that as he was looking forward to a fortnight with his players to really get to know them. I think he will have learned a lot from some of the performances in that game as much as he did in the wins I mentioned before.

The writing was on the wall for Steve Cooper, with a run of one win in 13 games preceding his sacking on 19 December. What did you make of that decision?

It was a strange one because he is such a popular figure due to everything he achieved with Forest in getting them back to the Premier League after such a long time away and it was a real shame to see him go.

Cooper had a real bond with the supporters, but results had not been great and it felt like a change was needed to get Forest going, whether that was Cooper being able to turn around results and performances or a managerial change.

The 5-0 defeat at Fulham at the start of December was a low point and, after that, it just felt inevitable.

The fact Nuno has made an immediate impact has really helped convince any supporters who were unsure that a change was the right call.

Over the last year or so, transfer windows have been a busy time at Forest. Do you expect any additions this month?

This month might be different to previous windows as there is a lot of focus on their financial situation at the moment, which will probably dictate what they do.

I do not think they need too many players anyway, as they do have a good squad because of the busy transfer windows – but with Forest, you never know! It might get to Deadline Day and a few players come in!

The focus is really going to being on moving a few players out as Nuno wants a smaller squad to work with and they do have a big squad currently, so that will be the priority.

How is Nuno likely to set up his side at Gtech Community Stadium?

He has mostly gone with a 4-2-3-1, which I suspect will be the case again against Brentford.

It does depend on injuries and absences as they have got six players away at the Africa Cup of Nations, which has really affected his options.

Brentford are unbeaten in the three Premier League meetings so far, with the last game a 1-1 draw in October. What’s your score prediction this time around?

Forest will be looking to continue the momentum they had started to build before the break, so I will go for a 2-2 draw this time.