Nottingham Forest continue to chase a first win under Ange Postecoglou in a Premier League clash at home to Sunderland.
Depending on results elsewhere, victory could put Forest as high as ninth in the table.
Sunderland can go second with a win if Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Chelsea all fail to win.
Team News
Murillo is still ruled out for Forest after he missed their last three matches with a thigh injury, including their 2-2 draw away to Real Betis in their Europa League opener on Wednesday night.
Nikola Milenkovic (cramp) faces a late fitness check but is set to be available, whilst Douglas Luiz will be rested after he picked up a minor hamstring injury in midweek.
Ola Aina (hamstring) and Nicolas Dominguez (knee) remain absent.
Sunderland will be without midfielder, Habib Diarra after he needed surgery on a groin injury which forced him to miss their 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa last weekend.
Reinildo Mandava is suspended after he was red carded for retaliation to a foul from Villa’s Matty Cash.
Aji Alese, Luke O’Nien (both shoulder), Leo Hjelde (Achilles), Romaine Mundle (hamstring) and Dennis Cirkin (wrist) are still sidelined.
When is Kick-Off?
Forest host Sunderland at the City Ground on Saturday 27 September at 5:30pm BST, live on Sky Sports Premier League in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Forest are yet to defeat Sunderland in the Premier League (D1, L1).
- Sunderland won 4-1 on their only previous Premier League visit to Forest in August 1996.
- Neither Forest nor Sunderland kept a clean sheet in their two previous Premier League meetings.
- Anything other than a win would see Forest suffer their longest streak without a league win for the first time since a five-match winless run between February – March 2024.
- Just one of Sunderland’s eight points in their first five league games this season came on the road (D1, L1).
Prediction
With that first win under Postecoglou still eluding Forest after conceding a late equaliser at Real Betis after they fought back to lead 2-1, they really need to find a way to cut out the defensive errors if want to get that victory because their attacking performance was impressive.
Sunderland however are a resilient team especially from a defensive standpoint which will cause Forest issues if they bring their attacking momentum into this game, yet their attack was pretty wasteful amidst dominance against Villa even when reduced to ten men.
I therefore am expecting a very scrappy but entertaining battle and if Sunderland can tidy up their final touches then they should be good for a draw.
Prediction: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Sunderland
Leave a Reply