Premier League: Wolves and Forest is a New Year Treat!

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Nottingham Forest

Monday night football heads to the Midlands this weekend as Premier League: Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Nottingham Forest rounds off another great weekend of top flight action. 

It may not sound like the most glamorous of match-ups but, believe me, this is a clash well worth watching as we’re going to see two teams both riding on the crest of a wave. Wolves have had a Happy Christmas and new manager Vitor Pereira’s side rounded off the festive period with an impressive 2-2 draw away to Tottenham Hotspur.

Nuno Espirito Santos’ Forest are the surprise packages of this season and their form is anything but temporary as they sit proudly third in the league table and five points clear of Newcastle United in fifth, and the visitors come into the game on the back of an impressive 2-0 win away to Everton. Forest aim to strengthen their audacious top four claim while Wolves will be desperate to put some distance between themselves and the bottom three.

 

Talking Points

Cunha out for Wolves

Wolves’ improving form under Pereira continued in their final match of 2024, away to Tottenham Hotspur, but they will start the New Year without star striker Matheus Cunha; and that is the big Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Nottingham Forest news coming out of Molineux. With ten goals and four assists the 25 year old Brazilian has been in his best form since his transfer from Atletico Madrid two years ago, but he will have to sit out two games after he was banned and fined £80,000 after acting in an ‘improper manner’ in the aftermath off Wolves’ 2-1 defeat at home to Ipswich Town on December 14^th. 

That defeat saw the end of Gary O’Neil as manager and the arrival of Pereira and, since then, Wolves have beaten Leicester City and Manchester United, scoring five goals without reply, before drawing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Cunha will miss this clash with Forest and an FA Cup tie away to Bristol City and he will be replaced by Jorgen Strand Larsen, who replaced Cunha at half time and scored his seventh league goal of the campaign with a late equaliser against Spurs. Larsen will lead the attack alongside the returned Hee-Chan Hwang who was also on target in the 2-2 draw.

Cunha will be missed but the Wolves still have teeth.      

 

Nuno’s happy return  

My SBOTOP mate James, a lifelong and currently despondent Manchester United fan, cheered himself up by congratulating Forest on their achievement of finishing 2024 in second place. They dropped to third after Arsenal beat Brentford on New Years Day but Forest have given themselves a superb chance of winning European football. Manager Nuno will be returning home as he famously led Wolves to the Premier League and was boss at Molineux for a successful four seasons before making an ill-fated move to Tottenham…but who succeeds there?! He had a brief spell in Saudi before returning to the Premier League to manage Forest. Most neutrals expected another relegation battle for the East Midlanders but 2024/25 has been anything but so far. So this is one of those rare occasions when a manger will be loved (or at least admired) by both sets of fans.

Nuno’s team has been in scintillating form in December, recovering from a loss to Manchester City by reeling off five Premier League wins. They beat the big guns of Manchester United, Aston Villa and Manchester United before beating Brentford on their home patch and the hard-to-break-down Everton last time out. Former Burnley and Newcastle United star Chris Wood is having his best season so far, and he scored his 11^th of the campaign against the Toffees, with the hugely talented Morgan Gibbs-White scoring as well.

Wolves will be boosted too by the return of wide man Callum Hudson-Odoi and powerful centre back Murillo, who both missed the win over Everton, while skipper Ryan Yates returns from suspension and is in line to take his place back in midfield.     

 

History

With 14 wins to seven Wolves have had the better of this relationship, although the last four meetings between these two teams have ended in a draw, most recently a 1-1 outcome in Nottingham on the third week of this season.

With five wins from the last six Forest are on fire but Wolves are on the up and beginning to climb away from danger, thanks to seven points from the last three games

 

Betting Tip

This is a really tight game to call and, while the Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Nottingham Forest betting odds make Forest the favourites at a price of 2.36, the hosts are not far behind at 2.70…but then I’m backing a fifth draw in succession.

   

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