Nottingham Forest host relegation battling Burnley at the City Ground in Monday Night Football.
Victory would see Forest climb to seventh in the table, whilst Burnley can move out of the relegation zone with a win and go into 17th position.
Team News
Anthony Elanga is a doubt for Forest after he suffered a hamstring injury on international duty for Sweden.
Wayne Hennessey (knee) and Serge Aurier (knock) are doubtful but Danilo (knock) is unlikely to be available, having not participated in training during the international break.
Nicolas Dominguez, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Odysseas Vlachodimos, Ibrahim Sangare and Andrew Omobamidele could make their debuts.
Burnley will welcome Anass Zaroury back from his three-match suspension, after he was red carded in their opening defeat to Manchester City in mid-August.
Aaron Ramsay (concussion) and Vitinho (knee) could return but Hjalmar Ekdal (knee), Michael Obafemi (hamstring) and Darko Churlinov (unspecified) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Forest host Burnley at the City Ground in a 7:45pm BST kick-off on Monday 18 September live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- This is Nottingham Forest’s first Premier League meeting against Burnley.
- Burnley have won just one of their last five league visits to Forest (W1, D2, L2), although they did win in their recent visit – prevailing 1-0 in this season’s Carabao Cup in late August.
- Forest have kept just one clean sheet in their last five meetings at home to Burnley in all competitions.
- Two of Forest’s four through ball passes in the Premier League this season have been made by Morgan Gibbs White.
- Luca Koleosho has been caught offside on more occasions than any other Burnley player this season, having been found offside on three occasions in three appearances.
Prediction
Having spent heavily on Deadline Day, Forest certainly should come into this match full of aspiration with players like Sangare and Hudson-Odoi set to bring fresh reinforcement to a team which has started the season well attack wise.
Steve Cooper however should be most pleased about their resilient defending during their win at Chelsea a fortnight ago, where they were clinical in their end product whilst managing the game superbly off the ball which lays a marker that this team is stronger than the leaky side of last season.
Burnley meanwhile have hopefully focused on their defending during the international break because lacklustre marking proved their downfall against Tottenham, in a game where their attack clearly clicked yet defensive issues remain a huge problem for the winless Clarets.
In fact I can see Forest winning this if they turn up with the same performance quality as seen at Chelsea and score early, although Burnley did win their Carabao Cup meeting here last month but their defence will be more vulnerable against a fresh full-strength Forest team..
Prediction: Nottingham Forest 2-1 Burnley
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