The Premier League weekend concludes at the City Ground this week when the Monday Night Football cameras head to the side of the River Trent when Nottingham Forest play host to Crystal Palace in a big game for both.
Forest started the season like a house on fire but the jets have cooled for them in recent times. Palace haven’t got going at all so far in this campaign and you sense the next few weeks are big for them.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Monday Night Football programme which will be on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League. The show begins at 6.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Nottingham Forest
After a season of turmoil last term where they were battling relegation for the majority of it, Nottingham Forest will be delighted to be performing much better. They went into the second international break with just one loss on their record but if you were being a little critical of them they have only won two of their seven matches and surprisingly they were both away from the City Ground, so they will be eyeing up a win here.
Forest are much improved defensively these days, conceding just six in their seven matches but they have only scored seven in seven and only scored multiple goals in one of those seven outings so that is where they are going to need to find some improvement if they are going to stay away from danger again this season. A win here against a team who are also going to be in and around the bottom half of the table would be welcome.
Crystal Palace
After finishing last season in fine fashion, there was a strong school of thought that Crystal Palace would go very well this term, even allowing for the loss of the classy Michael Olise. When they were able to maintain the services of Ebere Eze and Marc Guehi that would have been even more the case, however they just haven’t got going yet this term and head to Nottingham without a win to their name and just three draws from seven matches.
There has been an air of fortune in a couple of those draws as well. They were outplayed by Manchester United in one and a very dicey VAR call went their way against Leicester City in another so they could easily be sitting on one point from their opening seven matches. They are under pressure to start winning soon, although not as much as they might be with Ipswich Town and Southampton looking out of their depth and the likes of Wolves not really going anywhere fast either.
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Team News
Nottingham Forest are going to be without Morgan Gibbs-White and James Ward-Prowse for this match as both are suspended although the former is injured anyway. Danilo and Ibrahim Sangare are injured for the foreseeable future.
Oliver Glasner has confirmed that Adam Wharton is available for this match despite reports that he is awaiting surgery. Daniel Munoz is expected to be fit to play as well while Ebere Eze should be fresh having not been away with England.
Betting
I can’t really bring myself to get involved in the match betting in a contest where the two sides have played 14 matches between them and picked up just two wins. Nottingham Forest haven’t won at home all season while Crystal Palace haven’t won anywhere in the Premier League. I do think both teams will fancy their chances of winning this one though. They are not meeting a top half side here and both have had a fortnight to come up with a gameplan for the contest.
Crystal Palace have only kept one clean sheet this season and that came against Manchester United in a game they got battered in but somehow escaped with a 0-0 draw. Forest have kept two clean sheets but they have both been on the road when they were probably allowed to sit deep and play on the counter. I’m not convinced that they can do that in front of their home fans against a side who are not delivering results. This fixture ended 1-1 last season and with both believing they can win and needing to win I think both teams to score is a decent bet here as I trust both attacking units more than the defensive ones.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Bet365
