We look ahead to Monday’s Premier League game at Molineux Stadium with our Wolves vs Nottingham Forest prediction and preview. Nuno Espírito Santo’s surprise package will look to maintain their push for European qualification.
Wolves vs Nottingham Forest Stats: The Key Insights
- The Opta supercomputer favours Nottingham Forest, with the visitors winning 41.6% of pre-match simulations.
- Each of the last four Premier League meetings between Forest and Wolves has finished as a draw.
- Jørgen Strand Larsen has scored in six Premier League matches for Wolves this season (seven goals) but is yet to end on the winning side in any of them (two draws, four defeats). In Premier League history, only Michael Kightly has ever scored in more games without winning (seven).
Nottingham Forest will look to continue their surprising form at the top end of the Premier League when they visit a resurgent Wolves at Molineux on Monday.
Forest have been one of the stories of the Premier League season so far, heading into Matchday 20 third in the table despite being tipped by many to be fighting relegation ahead of the campaign.
Forest have won their last five Premier League games – they haven’t won six in a row in the top flight since a run of seven between May and September 1979 under Brian Clough, while they last did so within the same season in 1966-67 (two runs of six wins).
Nuno Espírito Santo’s men have won 37 points in 19 Premier League games this season, an improvement of 20 points from their total at this stage last season (17).
Two of the last three teams with a 20+ point improvement at the halfway stage in consecutive seasons have then won the league – Chelsea in 2016-17 (+29 from 2015-16) and Leicester City in 2015-16 (+26 from 2014-15).
That may be out of reach for Forest considering the form of Liverpool, but their sublime opening half of the campaign has put them right in the fight to play in European competition for the first time since 1979-80, when they went on to win the European Cup for a second consecutive season.
Ordinarily, a side in the form of Forest would relish taking on a side in 17th with just four league wins on the board all season.
That might not be the case this time, though, with Wolves flourishing under new boss Vitor Pereira following the departure of previous incumbent Gary O’Neil.
In fact, Pereira has picked up seven points in his three Premier League games in charge of Wolves. Should they win on Monday, Pereira will have won more points (10) and games (three) than O’Neil managed in his final 19 games in charge (two wins, three draws, 14 defeats, nine points).
It was a poor 2024 for Wolves, and history tells us they don’t usually get off to such a strong start to the year, winning their opening match in just one of the last six calendar years.
Forest, meanwhile, lost 3-2 against Brentford in their opening league match of 2024 – they’ve not lost their first league game in consecutive calendar years since 2006 and 2007 in League One.
The visitors’ chances are also boosted by the incredible form of striker Chris Wood, who has scored 22 goals in 35 Premier League games under Nuno for Forest.
One more goal would see Wood become the top-scoring Forest player under one manager in the Premier League, with Stan Collymore scoring 22 times under Frank Clark in 1994-95.
In terms of injury news, Forest look set to be boosted by the returns of Murillo and Callum Hudson-Odoi after knocks, as well as Ryan Yates from suspension. However, the game comes too soon for Ibrahim Sangaré and Danilo.
Wolves, meanwhile, will have to deal with the huge blow of Matheus Cunha missing out through suspension after he received a two-game ban from the FA over an incident following the 2-1 defeat to Ipswich Town. Additionally, Pereira will have to sweat on injury doubts Mario Lemina and André in midfield, while Boubacar Traoré and Pablo Sarabia look unlikely to be available.
Wolves vs Nottingham Forest Head-to-Head
Wolves have lost just one of their last 12 league games against Forest (five wins, six draws) and are unbeaten in all five against them in the Premier League.
Forest, meanwhile, are winless in their last four top-flight away games against Wolves (two draws, two losses), since a 4-1 win in December 1980 under Clough.
The teams’ last clash was back in August, sharing the points with a 1-1 draw after a Jean-Ricner Bellegarde equaliser cancelled out Wood’s opener.
Wolves vs Nottingham Forest Prediction
The Opta supercomputer is backing Forest to make it an incredible six victories in a row with another win on Monday, taking the points in 41.6% of the 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Wolves, meanwhile, continue their excellent start under Pereira with another triumph 32.8% of the time. The probability of the teams drawing for the fifth consecutive league meeting is rated at 25.6%.
Among the favourites to be relegated at the start of the season, Forest’s most likely finish is now sixth, with a 14.8% chance of making the top four.
Despite Wolves’ positive start to life under Pereira, they’re very much not out of the woods yet, with the supercomputer rating 17th as their most probable finishing spot. They are relegated in 39.99% of simulations.
Wolves vs Nottingham Forest Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Monday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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