Key events
The teams!
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Alex, Yates, Dominguez, Elanga, Anderson, Hudson-Odoi, Wood.
Subs: Boly, Sosa, Jota Silva, Toffolo, Omobamidele, Awoniyi, Williams, Morato, Carlos Miguel.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Lacroix, Guehi, Chalobah, Munoz, Hughes, Lerma, Mitchell, Kamada, Eze, Nketiah.
Subs: Matthews, Ward, Sarr, Mateta, Schlupp, Clyne, Wharton, Kporha, Agbinone.
Preamble
We are seven games into the season and still nobody is any of the wiser as to what these teams are, or where they will finish. Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace could feasibly both finish in the top half come May 2025, or could easily be relegated and most people would just shrug and think ‘yep, makes sense’.
Palace finished last season like a train under Oliver Glasner, with Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze, Adam Wharton all starring under the Austrian manager. But this time around, Olise is departed, Eze is woefully out of form and Wharton, struggling with a groin injury picked up over the summer at the Euros, has yet to find the form or fitness that saw him included on the latest ‘Golden Boy’ list. New signings Maxence Lacroix and Eddie Nketiah are talented but have so far failed to fill the voids left by Joachim Andersen and (whisper it) Jordan Ayew. But the truth is that Glasner, along with the rest of us, are still trying to figure out what is going wrong.
Forest are another conundrum. Very mediocre home form and excellent away form (four matches that include a win at Anfield and Southampton and draws at Chelsea and Brighton) mean Nuno Espírito Santo’s side could spring into eighth with a victory tonight.
Any win will be without their talisman, Morgan Gibbs-White (who is suspended for his red card against Brighton), manager Nuno (who is serving the first of a three-match suspension for his reaction to that red card) and a stadium ban for owner Evangelos Marinakis (who was found guilty of improper conduct following Forest’s defeat against Fulham in September).
That said, the City Ground under the lights always fun, especially with Big Chris Wood leading the line. Vibes are high in the east Midlands. Do join me for the 8pm BST kick-off. I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen.
