Premier League: Forest Look to Keep Wolves Winless

Nottingham Forest vs Wolverhampton Wanderers

Nuno Espirito Santo will welcome his former club at the City Ground as the Tricky Trees go against the Wolves on Saturday.

Apart from having been knocked out by Newcastle United in the EFL Cup earlier today, Forest have started their Premier League season relatively well. Had it not been for a late winner from Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, Forest would’ve won their first two matches of the campaign.

Against Southampton, despite being dominated in possession, Forest were the better side moving forward, finishing the match with 23 shots (eight on target) en route to a 0-1 victory.

Meanwhile, Wolves, relegation favourites at the start of the season, are yet to have any luck in their league endeavours so far.

Will they finally get in the win column? Or can Nuno Espirito Santo keep his former Wolves at bay?

Talking Points

Espirito Santo delighted by team’s grit

Despite bowing out of the EFL Cup against the Magpies, Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo still thinks his side is on the right track in terms of improvements.

The match against Newcastle was a close one; same with their two Premier League outings so far.

And in their win against the Saints, the Portuguese manager commended his side.

“This is the first step towards improvement, but overall a very good performance. Second half there was a spell when we weren’t able to press for 10 to 15 minutes. That was really tough,” he said.

Out of their three competitive matches so far, Forest have a 1W-1D-1L record, two of which could’ve gone their way.

Even with Danilo suffering a horrific injury in their season opener, Espirito Santo’s side have proven to be a difficult team to play against.

Unlike in the past years where they have been faced with the threat of relegation, Forest fans can breathe a little easier this season as they now look to be a different team than they once were.

Tough openers hamper Wolves

Gary O’Neil’s Wolves are set to have a long 2024/25 campaign ahead of them. They did good enough to finish mid-table over the past few seasons and even reached a Europa League quarter-final back in 2020—when Espirito Santo was still in charge.

Those times are long gone, and the future now looks bleak.

The club have sold two of their best players last season—Pedro Neto and Max Kilman—and are now favoured to drop their third league game in a row.

It also did not help that their first two games were against Premier League giants, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Wolves were handed a 2-0 defeat at the Emirates, and whilst they were hoping to catch an out-of-form Chelsea, they were instead left in an embarrassing mess.

Playing at home, the West Midlands club played well in the first half, as they headed into the locker room at 2-2.

However, fortunes changed afterwards as Noni Madueke unleashed some vicious Premier League 2024 highlights, as he scored a hat-trick in the second half, followed by Joao Felix finishing things off in the 80^th minute.

They did win their EFL Cup match-up against Burnley, with Goncalo Guedes scoring a brace to give their fans something to cheer about.

History

Forest and Wolves have faced each other numerous times, whether it’s in the Premier League or otherwise. Both clubs first met back in 1892—in the old First Division—where they played out a 2-2 draw.

Overall, Wolves have a better head-to-head encounter with the Tricky Trees, winning 63 matches as compared to the latter’s 45; 29 of their other meetings ended in a draw.

In recent history, there’s been very little that separates the two clubs. Their last three encounters in the league were all draws. A 2023 EFL Cup encounter also saw their match ending in a stalemate, albeit, Forest came out on top via penalties.

Betting Tip

The SBOTOP Premier League 2024 odds have Forest as favourites to deal Wolves a third successive top-flight loss. Underdogs once again, Wolves are priced at 3.17, whilst a draw is a 3.26.

There are other alternative bets to choose from, and in a seemingly tight affair as this one, exploring those options may just yield you big bucks in return.

A total goal of 0-1 is at 3.30, whilst predicting a goalless affair is on a whopping 12.00.

But with Forest having capable attackers in Callum Hudson-Odoi, Morgan Gibbs-White, Chris Wood and Anthony Elanga, a shaky Wolves defence might not stand a chance. So bet on the latter at your own risk.

 

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