Nottingham Forest vs Burnley. Prediction and Preview. Probable Lineups, Team News, Stats, and more

Nottingham Forest FC will host Burnley FC in the English Premier League 5th round match at the City Ground Stadium. The fixture will take place on Tuesday, September 19, beginning at 00:15 IST.

Parimatch News will tell you everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming match.

Nottingham Forest News & Current Form: 

Having returned to the elite division last season after a long absence, Nottingham Forest fulfilled their main objective of avoiding relegation to the Championship, finishing in 16th place, 4 points from Leicester City FC.

The Trees will be hoping to improve their results in the upcoming campaign and their start in the championship has been promising, as evidenced by their current 12th position in the Premier League standings.

The Red and Whites lost narrowly to Arsenal FC (2:1) and Manchester United FC (3:2) away, but managed to take a 2:1 lead over Sheffield United FC and Chelsea FC (0:1) before the pause for national team games thanks to a strike from Anthony Elanga in the second half. 

Interestingly, Forest have won each of their last four Premier League matches at the City Ground, despite the hosts failing to celebrate success in five consecutive EPL matches on home soil since the days of Brian Clough in 1991. 

Nottingham are genuinely performing well this season. Only West Ham  United FC (2.3 meters per second) move the ball to the opponent’s goal faster than the Trees (2.2). This style of football has already shown high efficiency, and playing from defense against the league’s worst attack implies a low number of goal opportunities created. 

In addition, the upcoming rivals met at the end of last month in the 1/32 final of the English League Cup. Then with a minimum score (1:0) victory went to Burnley.

Players of Nottingham Forest FC after a successful game

During the break defender Scott McKenna and midfielder Orel Mangala returned to the squad, and they will surely be in the starting line-up on Monday. Goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey is still recovering from injury. Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi, the club’s top scorer last season, is back at his best (3 goals and 1 assist in Premier League). He will be supported in attack by Morgan Gibbs-White (1 assist) and summer recruit Elanga. 

Goalkeeper Keylor Navas and left-back Renan Lodi left Nottingham Forest this summer. Instead of them, the Red and Whites added goalkeeper Matt Turner (Arsenal) and defender Ola Aina from Torino FC, Argentine lateral Gonzalo Montiel and Callum Hudson-Odoi. In the last days of the transfer window, they managed to acquire defender Murillo, Argentine Nicolas Dominguez from Bologna FC and Nuno Tavares of Arsenal. 

Forest have also signed PSV center-back Ibrahim Sangare for €30m. The 25-year-old Ivorian Coast national team player signed a five-year contract with the EPL club. For PSV Sangare played since 2020, played 140 matches, in which he scored 15 goals and gave 10 goal assists. For the national team, Sangare has played 31 games and scored 9 goals.

Belgian striker of AC Milan Divock Origi will play for the Trees until the end of the season. Origi played in 36 games in all competitions last season where he scored 2 goals and gave 1 goal assist.

“Divock is returning to the Premier League to further strengthen our team. We wanted to strengthen our attacking options and Divock will certainly help us do that. We look forward to welcoming him to our home at Trenside,” said Nottingham director Ross Wilson.

In addition, the club has signed a new goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos from SL Benfica. The English Premier League club have signed the 29-year-old Greek national team goalkeeper on a contract that runs until 30 June 2027. Vlachodimos played for Benfica since 2018, played 225 matches and helped the team win two league titles.

Defender Harry Toffolo is suspended for five months for breaching a betting ban. The FA announced in July that Toffolo had breached betting rules 375 times between 22 January 2014 and 18 March 2017.

Player, who pleaded guilty, received a five-month suspension, which will take effect if the defender breaks the rules again before the end of the 2024/25 season. The English footballer must also pay a fine of £21,000.

Burnley News & Current Form: 

The Clarets ended the long and relatively successful Sean Dyche era with relegation from the Premier League in 2022. But since last season the new era of Vincent Kompany has begun. The latter, despite some skeptical expectations, brilliantly managed to climb out of the Championship – the team won that division ahead of schedule with a 10-point lead over their nearest rivals. 

However, this year Vincent Kompany’s side face a much tougher task, the new coach has made a completely different team and they need time to get used to the elite division.

The Clarets are currently not in the best form and are in the penultimate place in the Premier League with 0 points. They lost at home to Manchester City (0:3), Aston Villa FC (1:3) and Tottenham Hotspur FC (2:5). 

Lyle Foster opened the scoring in the fourth minute, but a shot from Cristian Romero and a fine strike from James Maddison, as well as a hat-trick from Son Heung-min, removed all questions about the match winner. This is Son’s first hat-trick since September 2022, when he scored three times for Leicester (6:2). The South Korean national team player has 106 goals in the EPL. He moved into the top 30 in league history, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (103) and Didier Drogba (104).

Gaffer of Burnley FC – Vincent Kompany

Kompany’s side have conceded more goals than any other EPL team – 11, and only once have the visitors conceded more than three goals in each of their four Premier League starts – in the 2010-11 season.

Still injured are forward Michael Obafemi, who was signed in the summer, midfielder Darko Churlinov and center back Hjalmar Ekdal. This is compounded by the disqualification of striker Anass Zaroury and uncertainty about the participation of defender Vitinho. Swiss Zeki Amdouni is expected to return to the attack, although he has yet to score in the first three league games.

Nottingham Forest form guide: L-W-L-W

Burnley form guide: L-L-L

Nottingham Forest vs Burnley Head-To-Head Record:

• October 20, 2015: Nottingham Forest 1 – 1 Burnley (Championship);
• February 23, 2016: Burnley 1 – 0 Nottingham Forest (Championship);
• August 30, 2023: Nottingham Forest 0 – 1 Burnley (League Cup).

Nottingham Forest vs Burnley Predicted XI:

Nottingham Forest’s possible starting lineup (3-4-2-1): Turner; Boly, Worrall, McKenna; Montiel, Yates, Mangala, Aina; Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Awoniyi.

Burnley’s possible starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Trafford; Al-Dakhil, O’Shea, Beyer, Roberts; Redmond, Cullen, Berge, Zaroury; Amdouni, Foster.

Statistical preview of the match Nottingham Forest vs Burnley:

• Forest’s First XI average age is 26.9 years, Burley’s First XI average age is 24.0 years.
• The total value of Forest’s squad is 387 mln euros, while Burnley’s is 227 mln euros.
• Robert Jones has been appointed as the head arbiter for the upcoming match. The referee has already officiated six matches in the current campaign, taking into account different tournaments and competitions. During this time he has managed to show 26 yellow cards (an average of 4.33 Yellow Cards per game) and no red cards so far. In addition, the referee has whistled an average of 22.17 fouls per game.
• Burnley are unbeaten in their last 8 games against this opponent.
• Burnley conceded an average of 2.40 goals per game in their last 5 games and scored an average of 1.00 goals per game.
• In the last 5 games Nottingham Forest conceded an average of 1.40 goals per game and scored an average of 1.20 goals per game.
• Nottingham Forest have lost three of their last five matches.
• Burnley have lost four out of the last five matches.
• In 20 EPL home matches the Trees have lost just five times.
• Burnley have not lost away in official matches since 18 March. 
• Burnley have conceded at least 3 goals in every match.

What has been said before the match:

Gaffer of the Trees Steve Cooper about managing new players and upcoming opponent:

“It’s a competitive group now, there’s strength in depth and real competition for places which is what we want from goalkeeper to the players at the top of the pitch. That’s the sort of culture you want, where players have to work hard to be in the next team.”

“We’ve only seen Ibrahim Sangare train today for the first time, having only just returned from international duty, so it’s nice to meet him properly. We look forward to working with him, he has undoubted quality and is the profile of a midfield player we wanted to bring in.”

“It’s been quite a long process in getting him here, but we’re delighted he’s chosen us as he could have chosen so many other clubs and we’re really looking forward to working with him.”

“We didn’t cover ourselves in glory last time out against Burnley and I didn’t enjoy the performance one bit, so there’s always bits to learn from. Sometimes the best way to learn is through the bad games and the tough moments and that certainly wasn’t one we did well at all.”

“Whether that has an impact on Monday, I’m not too sure. We’ll just be focusing on ourselves and how we commit to the plan that we feel will be the right one for the game. If we do that, then we give ourselves a good chance of picking up the result we want.”

“We learnt that last season, we had to go through the process of becoming a team, then it was fairly similar when we picked up all the injuries in the second half of the season where we had to reset again.”

Vincent Kompany, football legend, now coaching Burnley FC ahead of the upcoming game:

“Everyone has come back ready to go. It was still good for us, because there were a few that didn’t go, which meant we got to spend more time working with them and maybe work more specifically and individually.”

“We’re just borderline where it’s still interesting. You get teams where everyone is going and you’re left with three or four players and you’re looking at each other and asking ‘what do we do now?’ That’s not where we’re at.”

“For us, this season, we know the challenge is a big one to show we belong in this league, but in the end there’s a bigger plan where we believe we can thrive in the Premier League.”

“Everything is going to be about progress for us, making sure we get better and the habits we need to have every single day to achieve this goal. That doesn’t happen with one result, negative or positive, it happens with what you do every day. It’s to paint that picture again.”

“It did until they got seven players in on deadline day, so I don’t know! They did a few things differently against us in the Carabao Cup which they haven’t done too much of in the Premier League. But that game is done and this is a new one now.”

Nottingham Forest vs Burnley Prediction:

The guests have just came back from the EFL Championship and are yet to please their fans – they have lost all three of their league matches. However, the coach lacks the financial backup to attract the right manpower to instill his football. He will probably still have to resort to a much more conservative and parrying football. 

Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, have taken six points from four rounds of fixtures. Last season, the Foresters took most of the points at home and with the current form of the visitors, their fans are expecting another win at City Ground Stadium. 

Will the game be dynamic and productive? The rivals should not be afraid of each other, the difference in class is not big, so the vis-a-vis will play with an emphasis on the game of attack. This is a meeting of contestants in the fight for survival, which means that the rivals should strive exclusively for victory. More than 2.5 goals have been scored in each of Burnley’s three league matches, as well as in three of Nottingham Forest’s four meetings. We expect a goal-filled encounter.

Parimatch News staff prediction:

We say: the match total will be over 2.5 – Yes.