Nottingham Forest host West Ham at the City Ground as both teams seek to bounce back from defeats.
Victory would see Forest climb to 15th in the table with Crystal Palace not playing until Monday evening, whilst West Ham can go seventh if Newcastle lose elsewhere.
Team News
Ola Aina, Willy Boly and Ibrahim Sangare won’t feature for Forest despite their recent returns from international duty for Nigeria and Ivory Coast respectively.
Gonzalo Montiel and Chris Wood remain absent with hamstring injuries.
West Ham will have Edson Alvarez available after he was substituted in their loss to Arsenal, due to illness.
Michail Antonio (knee) could return but Lucas Paqueta (calf) remains sidelined.
When is Kick-Off?
Forest host West Ham at the City Ground at 3pm GMT on Saturday 17 February, untelevised live in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Forest have won two of their last six Premier League meetings against West Ham (W2, D1, L3).
- West Ham have won one of their last five Premier League visits to Forest’s City Ground (W1, D3, L1).
- Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi has scored in each of his two appearances against West Ham (W1, L1).
- Murillo has made more blocks than any other Forest player this season, with 15 blocks in 18 appearances.
- West Ham have failed to score in three of their last five league matches (D3, L2).
Prediction
Sat just two points above the drop, Forest really need to start finding wins fast if want to avoid another nervy final weeks of the season but they did show fight to come from behind twice in their eventual defeat to Newcastle where defensive mistakes were their own downfall.
West Ham meanwhile were simply outclassed by Arsenal in another lacklustre performance and if they don’t turn this dip around now, they could well need to soon focus primarily on winning the Europa League if want another European adventure next season.
Both teams therefore could well try and keep their defensive lines tight but if Forest concede first, I don’t see them winning but a draw might well be achievable.
Prediction: Nottingham Forest 1-1 West Ham
Result: Nottingham Forest 2-0 West Ham