Nottingham Forest vs Crystal Palace

Nottingham Forest’s dogfight against Premier League relegation pits them against fellow bottom-half rivals Crystal Palace at the City Ground.

Nottingham Forest’s bid to maintain their Premier League status suffered a substantial blow during the international break as a four-point deduction for breaching spending rules plunged them into the drop zone. It’s not like Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have held up their end of the bargain on the field, suffering three defeats in their last four league outings (D1). Still only one point adrift of 17th-placed Luton Town, the Tricky Trees have no reason to panic, but their form at the City Ground spells trouble. Except for a 2-0 win against West Ham, they’ve lost three of their last four home league matches. But all those defeats saw them succumb to a narrow one-goal margin, suggesting another closely-contested encounter could be on the cards.

In the meantime, Oliver Glasner’s managerial tenure at Crystal Palace has been off to a mixed start (W1, D1, L1), leaving the Eagles trapped in the lower reaches, eight points clear of the bottom three. As they had the final weekend before the international break off, the visitors have had plenty of time to devise a strategy to defy their woeful record of one win across their last 12 meetings with Forest (D5, L6). On a more positive note, Palace’s three most recent triumphs against this opposition came at the City Ground. That’s unlikely to fill the Eagles with confidence, considering they’ve not won an away game in the Premier League since November (D3, L5), conceding an alarming 20 goals in that sequence.