These are concerning times for Vítor Pereira. Nottingham ­Forest’s fourth permanent manager of this crazy season may be only four matches into his spell in charge but – given the record of the owner, Evangelos Marinakis – his position is already looking most precarious.

A second Premier League defeat in succession since he was appointed to replace Sean Dyche a fortnight ago leaves Forest just two points clear of the drop zone and facing a daunting trip to Manchester City on Wednesday.

Forest never looked like capi­talising on West Ham’s heavy defeat against Liverpool on Saturday, against a Brighton side packed with experience who recorded their first home victory for two months with goals from Diego Gómez and Danny Welbeck – the 35-year-old forward matching his career-best 10th of the season – to ease more of the pressure on Fabian Hürzeler.

However, while this time the Brighton head coach left the pitch to cheers rather than boos as they moved up to 11th in the table, Pereira must quickly find a solution to ­Forest’s lethargy after a campaign when they have struggled to cope with the demands of European football.

“Even the strongest players in the world, if you are playing one day then travelling, playing after three days, travelling … you start to be tired, even mentally,” he said in comments that are unlikely to have gone down well with Marinakis. “But this is our reality, this is what we need to face. It’s important to balance the team and to prepare the team to face this schedule. It’s tough, but we need to be ready.”

Forest might have fancied their chances against a Brighton team that had failed to win any of their three previous games here but steadied the ship with a priceless victory at Brentford last week to stave off their own relegation concerns. Hürzeler’s decision to stick with the same side paid dividends as James Milner made his 655th Premier League appearance after breaking the record last week. Up against Elliot Anderson, who is expected to start for England at the World Cup this summer, the 40‑year‑old lasted almost the whole match and put in another composed performance that will only boost his hopes of being awarded another contract extension.

The only complaint was that Brighton’s victory should have been more comfortable in the end but ­Hürzeler was delighted with the response of the home crowd. “We wanted to create an energy so everyone would follow us,” he said. “They helped us to get over the ­finish line.”

It took only six minutes for Gómez to open the scoring when he capi­talised on two errors from Neco ­Williams as the Wales defender failed to clear his lines and hammered past Matz Sels from the edge of the area.

Forest hit back with a brilliant goal that was created by Callum Hudson‑Odoi’s clever dummy on the touchline to set Igor Jesus free. His pass picked out Gibbs‑White and he unleashed an unstoppable shot past Bart Verbruggen with the outside of his boot. But the Forest bench had only just sat down when they found themselves behind again to an equally incisive move. Welbeck applied the expert ­finish after Kaoru Mitoma’s cross was headed into the veteran striker’s path by Jack ­Hinshelwood at the back post.

It took an excellent save to deny Mitoma a third as Forest struggled to contain Brighton and certainly didn’t help themselves. A sloppy pass from Murillo inside his own half almost gifted Welbeck his second before ­Anderson was correctly booked for diving at the other end as he attempted to hoodwink the referee, Andrew Madley.

Hinshelwood tested Sels again with a diving header just before half‑time and Pereira must have been grateful to be trailing by only one goal at the break. With so many players on the wrong side of 30, Brighton have often struggled continue their intensity into the second half of games this season. But they seemed determined to finish the job off as Pascal Gross twice went close within five minutes of the restart, with a clever free‑kick almost catching out Sels at his near post.

Forest were struggling to mount a response and one crossfield pass from Gibbs-White that sailed out of play summed up their frustrations. Pereira tried changing ­formation but cut a frustrated figure as he watched with his arms folded on the touchline. There was always a chance they could rescue something as Brighton could not quite kill the game off. Solly March made his return from almost a year out before six minutes of added time were greeted by a roar from the Forest fans behind the goal. But desperate blocks from Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke after an almighty goalmouth scramble deservedly saw Brighton home.