Stoke City kick off this weekend’s Championship action as they meet Nottingham Forest in a Midlands derby at the BET365 Stadium.
Having moved off the bottom of the table last weekend, Stoke can move closer to safety with a win whilst Forest can temporarily go top if they take all three points.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesStoke City have no fresh injury or suspension concerns to report after their midweek defeat at Crawley.
Captain, Ryan Shawcross therefore remains their only absentee with a broken leg suffered during pre-season.
Sabri Lamouchi will again rotate his Forest lineup although left-back, Yuri Ribeiro could keep his spot after impressing at Arsenal in midweek.
Form
Stoke are still winless in the league with two draws from their eight outings so far, but have netted in three of their four home league games with Scott Hogan and Sam Clucas scoring twice each.
Forest are unbeaten since the opening weekend with four wins and three draws, despite keeping just three clean sheets in that time.
Stat Attack
- Stoke have lost one of their last five league meetings with Nottingham Forest (W1, D3, L1).
- All of their last three draws have been goalless although just one of those came at the BET365 Stadium.
- Stoke are unbeaten in their last six home games against Forest in all competitions (W2, D4).
- It has been 88 years since Forest last lost three consecutive trips to Stoke, with those three defeats coming between March 1930 and December 1931.
- Four of Forest’s last five league goals have come in the second-half.
Prediction
Stoke finally seem to have turned a corner in the past week with two draws (let ignore Tuesday’s penalties defeat) but need to find that strong defensive performance which they still lack.
Forest meanwhile are quietly growing in confidence and will have learned some vital lessons from their midweek Cup thrashing at Arsenal, which should help them to improve going forward.
I therefore can see both teams playing out a tight draw here because Forest have dragged out their recent wins, which will suit Stoke who should attack this with new-found confidence.
Prediction: Stoke City 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Result: Stoke City 2-3 Nottingham Forest