Nottingham Forest Match Preview

Over the past few weeks, West Ham United have had a chance to complete a number of Premier League doubles. However, they haven’t managed to achieve this yet. They have another chance to do so this afternoon when they travel to The City Ground and face Nottingham Forest.

After the overall performance against Arsenal, the Hammers know that they need a win here to boost morale in the club and most of all amongst the ever-loyal fan base.

Due to last weekend’s other results and the humiliation at home to the Gunners, David Moyes’ men have slipped to eighth place in the table and will be looking to get back on track in order to move back up to the European qualification places.

On several occasions this season, the team have often bounced back after a bad result and all connected with the club will certainly hope that that is the case this afternoon.

The Irons are on course to do the double over the Tricky Trees here, as they eventually won a topsy-turvy encounter 3-2 in Stratford.

For that fixture back on November 12, Forest were under the stewardship of Steve Cooper but on December 20, they dispensed with his services and swiftly replaced him with former Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur Head-Coach Nuno Espírito Santo.

The wait for a victory in 2024 goes on for both of these sides and the memories for the East Londoners will still be fresh of the 1-0 defeat they suffered here back in August 2022. For that reason, they will want to put matters right today.

Following a draw and defeat in their last two games on the road, they are still looking for a sixth away success of the season, having not won on their travels since the remarkable 2-1 comeback victory at Tottenham Hotspur back on 7 December.

Ben Johnson may be dropped to the bench for this match, while it remains to be seen whether Captain Kurt Zouma will retain his place after an uncharacteristically poor personal performance from the Frenchman six days ago. If Zouma is omitted, then either Konstantinos Mavropanos, Angelo Ogbonna or Aaron Cresswell will slot into the defence. After not featuring since the reverse fixture against his former club, Michail Antonio is available again after a lengthy injury absence and could be included in the matchday squad.

For the first time since the trip to Burnley back on 25 November, West Ham will be involved in a Saturday 3pm kick-off and the referee is Thomas Bramall.