Overview
Nottingham Forest is going through a worrying period in the Premier League when they have not won in the last 6 matches, causing the safe distance with the relegation group to narrow.
Despite surprisingly winning one point at Manchester City's home ground in the previous round, coach Vitor Pereira's team is currently only above the bottom 3 teams thanks to goal difference.
The situation became even more difficult when West Ham United won an important victory against Fulham in the same round, thereby increasing pressure on Forest.
Besides the relegation battle, Forest is still busy in the UEFA Europa League arena. Next week, they will travel to Denmark to meet Midtjylland in the second leg with a one-goal lead.
This means that Forest's schedule is significantly denser than its direct competitors in the final stage of the season. If they want to create a boost for the relegation race, Forest will have to overcome an uncomfortable opponent this weekend, Fulham.
Statistics do not favor the City Ground team. Since promotion in 2022, Forest has lost six of their seven Premier League encounters against Fulham. Their only victory was a 3-1 win in April 2024.
Meanwhile, Fulham entered the match with the goal of competing for a European cup spot. Coach Marco Silva's team is currently ranked 10th in the standings and 4 points behind Brentford in the race to win a ticket to the UEFA Europa Conference League.
However, Fulham's form is also not really stable. After a 6-match unbeaten streak at the beginning of the year, they have only won 2 out of the last 6 matches in the Premier League and lost 4 matches.
The London team has just been eliminated from the FA Cup by Southampton, thereby being able to fully focus on the remaining stage of the Premier League.
In the first meeting of the season, Fulham defeated Forest 1-0 thanks to a penalty goal from Raul Jimenez. That result helped the away team gain more confidence before the difficult away match at City Ground. Especially when they still nurture hopes of breaking into the European Cup qualifying group before the upcoming challenging matches with Liverpool, Brentford and Arsenal.
Personnel situation
Nottingham Forest will be without John Victor and Nicolo Savona for the rest of the season as both are recovering from knee injuries.
Key striker Chris Wood last season is expected to only be able to return next month, after also having to be sidelined for a long time due to a knee injury. Meanwhile, center-back Willy Boly has not yet had a specific time to reappear due to a similar problem.
However, Pereira's team may receive good news when Stefan Ortega, Dan Ndoye and Jair Cunha are likely to return to the squad in the next few weeks.
On the other side, Fulham currently only has two cases that are uncertain to play. Among them, Brazilian winger Kevin is likely to be out of action until the end of the season after ankle surgery.
In addition, striker Harry Wilson's ability to play is also uncertain as he has been absent in the last 2 matches due to an ankle injury.
Expected lineup:
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Morato, Milenkovic, Murillo, Aina, Sangare, Anderson, Williams, Dominguez, Gibbs-White, Igor Jesus.
Leno, Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Sessegnon, Berge, Iwobi, Chukwueze, Smith Rowe, Bobb, Jimenez.
The match between Nottingham Forest and Fulham takes place at 9:00 PM on March 15th (Vietnam time).
