Nottingham Forest will welcome West Ham United to the City Ground in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side hit the ground running on the opening weekend of the season by blowing Brentford away 3-1.
The Tricky Trees added another point to their tally away at Crystal Palace last Sunday, in a game where two of my three Selhurst Park selections landed.
As such, Nottingham Forest will be quietly confident about their chances of heaping more misery on West Ham.
The Hammers have endured a calamitous start to the new season, losing 3-0 at Sunderland and then being thrashed 5-1 by Chelsea last Friday night.
A late collapse when losing 3-2 away at Wolves in the EFL Cup on Tuesday night has piled further pressure on West Ham manager Graham Potter.
How the bookies view it: Forest set for three points
Nottingham Forest come into their latest home game as short-priced 4/6 favourites on Boylesports. Eight of Forest’s last 10 home wins in the top-flight have featured under 4.5 goals, so the 10/11 (Boylesports) about a repeat here is a price that definitely represents value.
West Ham are as big as 15/4 on Boylesports for a City Ground success while a share of the spoils is also considered unlikely at 11/4 with the same firm.
Head to head: Four on the spin for Forest?
Nottingham Forest can draw confidence from their strong record in this fixture in recent times, triumphing in each of the previous three Premier League meetings between the pair, running out 3-0 winners in last term’s corresponding fixture.
Players to watch: Wood to deliver the goods?
Chris Wood has scored eight goals across his previous eight Premier League appearances against West Ham, including in last season’s meeting at the City Ground. After bagging a brace against Brentford on the opening weekend of the campaign, the New Zealand ace looks well placed to notch again here at 7/5 on Boylesports.
Lucas Paqueta has scored in each of West Ham’s last two matches, making the Brazilian international worthy of consideration for an anytime strike on Sunday at 5/1 on Boylesports.
Predicted line-ups
Nottingham Forest will be unable to call upon the services of Nicolas Dominguez, but apart from that the home team could have a clean bill of health.
West Ham will once again be without injured duo Crysencio Summerville and Luis Guilherme, however new arrival Mateus Fernandes could make his Hammers debut after joining the club from Southampton on Friday.
Nottingham Forest: Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Sangare, Anderson; N’Doye, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood
West Ham: Hermansen, Todibo, Kilman, Aguerd, Wan-Bissaka, Ward-Prowse, Soucek, Diouf, Paqueta, Fullkrug, Bowen
Anything else catch the eye?
While Nottingham Forest are not necessarily a team that you would associate with goals, I’m prepared to propose a play on them to score at least twice against West Ham on Sunday at 4/5 on Boylesports.
As mentioned, Forest fired in three goals in their previous home game with Brentford, and they have since made a number of eye-catching signings.
That doesn't bode well for a struggling West Ham side that have shipped a combined total of 11 goals across their opening three matches of the season.
GambleAware