Nottingham Forest Match Preview

On his many visits to East London with Brighton and Hove Albion, Graham Potter became used to picking up maximum points. However, since taking the Head-Coaches role in Stratford, he has only picked up two victories. The ever-loyal West Ham United fan base will be desperate for him to pick up another one when they face Nottingham Forest in their last home match of the 2024/25 season.

The Tricky Trees may have guaranteed European football for next season after their 2-2 home draw with Midlands rivals Leicester City a week ago but they arrive to play the Hammers this afternoon looking for the result that would take them back into the UEFA Champions League places. In order to achieve this particular aim, they will have to do something they haven’t managed since New Year’s Day 1997 and claim maximum points in East London.

On the other hand, the home side will want to end the season in Stratford on a high after achieving a memorable result at Old Trafford last Sunday.

There hasn’t been a win here since February 27 but the hosts will hope that they can atone for that and prevent Nuno Espírito Santo’s team from taking three points today. If they can do it, then Potter will have helped his side to achieve back-to-back wins for only the second time this campaign.

Surprisingly, given their lofty position in the table, the visitors have only triumphed once in their last six games, meaning the Irons may fancy their chances of backing up that result against the Red Devils, while also giving Potter a fifth win in charge of the club.

Neither team will have an advantage in terms of preparation time ahead of this game as both sides played a week ago but the hosts will be full of confidence after claiming a much-needed win last weekend, having said that though, they will be wary of what their opponents have on their minds.

The team have no new injury concerns ahead of this game but having made three changes for the trip to Manchester, Potter may make further alterations here, as Edson Álvarez, Niclas Füllkrug and Lucas Paquetá could be restored to the starting line-up with Guido Rodríguez and Vladimír Coufal likely to miss out. He did deploy both captain Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus in more advanced positions against Ruben Amorim’s men and he may stick with that tactic here.

James Ward-Prowse wouldn’t have been able to feature in this game as he was on a season-long loan with today’s opponents but that loan was cut short in February so the midfielder is able to feature.

The Irons will be involved in their second consecutive 2:15pm kick-off this weekend, however, this time around the match will be screened by Sky Sports with build-up getting underway from 1pm. The referee is Sam Barrott.