Overview
Fulham have long long long long craved a major title throughout the club's history, but once again, the opportunity to touch the glory has passed regrettably. A 1-2 defeat to defending Carabao Cup champion Newcastle United in the quarter-finals ended the London team's dream of moving to Wembley.
Marco Silva's team collapsed due to Lewis Miley's late header in extra time, leaving hopes of making history disappearing in the Northeast region. However, for some fans, Fulham's early stop can be considered a necessary "bitter medicine", in the context that the team is still quite close to the bottom of the Premier League table.
The instability has haunted Fulham throughout the season, partly as a result of a rather quiet transfer window. The Cottagers are currently 15th in the table, despite still being 7 points behind the relegation zone.
Returning to the Premier League front, Fulham somewhat regained their spirit when defeating Burnley 3-2 in round 16, thereby ending a series of two consecutive defeats. Before that, they suffered a thrilling 4-5 loss to Manchester City despite not playing badly.
In fact, Fulham have scored and conceded in all 5 recent matches in all competitions. At Craven Cottage, they have also scored in 9 out of 10 home matches this season, except for the clash with Arsenal.
On the other hand, placing faith in the scenario of both teams scoring when Nottingham Forest is present often not effective. This has only happened once in their last 7 matches in the Premier League and Europa League.
That rare time came two weeks ago, in a 2-1 victory over FC Utrecht in the European arena. Forest continued to show impressive form after "crushing" Tottenham Hotspur's defense at City Ground, winning convincingly 3-0.
Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ibrahim Sangare are prominent factors, directly contributing to 6 goals (3 goals, 3 assists), helping Sean Dyche's team safe before Christmas, regardless of the results of round 17.
Forest's strong comeback must have made Ange Postecoglou feel sad, as the visitors have won 6 of their last 8 matches in all competitions under Dyche. This is clear evidence that a negative streak of form can be completely broken.
Notably, Fulham and Nottingham Forest have only met three times at Craven Cottage in the Premier League. The home team won all 3 matches, with an overwhelming total score of 9-1. This is also Forest's worst away record against an opponent in the league.
Personnel situation
Heavily affected by the wave of calls to the African Football Cup, Fulham will be missing three important pillars: Calvin Bassey, Alex Iwobi and Samuel Chukwueze, players who are all set to leave for the Nigeria national team in the next few weeks.
The absence of Iwobi could cause more problems for Marco Silva if Sasa Lukic does not recover from a groin injury in time. The Serbian midfielder had to leave the field in the first half of the match against Newcastle, but Silva was still optimistic about the possibility that Lukic would be fit enough to participate.
On the other hand, Nottingham Forest was also significantly affected by the AFCON, when losing midfielder Ibrahim Sangare along with center back Will Boly. However, Boly's absence is not considered to have a big impact on the overall strength of the away team.
Forest are chac chan not without Chris Wood due to knee injuries, along with Ola Aina and Ryan Yates with thigh problems. However, Taiwo awoniyi have returned to training and still have a ray of hope to play, while Nicolas Dominguez and goalkeeper Matz Sels are expected to qualify.
Expected lineup:
Fulham: Leno, Tete, Andersen, Cuenca, Robinson, Berge, Lukic, Wilson, Smith Rowe, Kevin, Jimenez.
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Savona, Murillo, Milenkovic, Williams, Luiz, Anderson, Hutchinson, Gibbs-White, Hudson- odoi, Jesus.
The match between Fulham and Nottingham Forest takes place at 3:00 am on December 23 (Vietnam time).
