West Ham v Nottingham Forest: Prediction, tips and bet builder as top five dream fades for Tricky Trees
Nottingham Forest Manager Nuno Espirito Santo
Dreams of Champions League football are beginning to fizzle out for Nottingham Forest who head to West Ham in pursuit of a much-needed victory this Sunday (1415 BST).
The Tricky Trees have endured a turbulent week, not only due to their stuttering results but also because of a controversial moment between owner Evangelos Marinakis and manager Nuno Espirito Santo.
An animated Marinakis appeared to have a confrontation with the Forest boss at the end of Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Leicester. While at first sight the argument appeared to be over the team’s latest slip-up, a statement from the club said that the owner was actually frustrated over Taiwo Awoniyi’s injury.
Whatever the true reason is, the fact of the matter is that Forest are starting to lose hope in their pursuit of Champions League qualification.
The Tricky Trees seemed destined for a top five finish when they kicked off April with a 1-0 win over Manchester United – a fifth straight win across all competitions for Nottingham at the time.
Santo and his men could not keep up the pace, winning just one of their following six games in the Premier League.
Forest enter this penultimate matchday in seventh, knowing that whatever happens they will play in Europe – the only question concerns the name of the competition.
Coming so close to the Champions League and ending up with the Conference League would feel a tad disappointing. On the other hand, the fact Forest are even flirting with the top five is a tremendous achievement.
West Ham know all about the Conference League having won the competition a couple of seasons ago.
Despite going all the way in Europe’s third tier tournament, manager David Moyes was gone just a season later after falling short of the club’s high standards.
A lot of the fans who were against Moyes would probably take him back in a heartbeat considering how low the Irons have sunk since his departure.
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With just 10 Premier League wins all season, this has been a forgetful campaign for the London Stadium outfit. Nevertheless, Graham Potter’s men will be looking to end it on a high in these final two games.
Here we pick out some of our best tips for this juicy Premier League meeting, and if you put it into a Betway bet builder you’ll get odds of around 7/1.
West Ham v Nottingham Forest bet builder
West Ham 3+ shots on target – 1/3
Chris Wood 1+ shots on target – 4/11
Good luck and please gamble responsibly.
(All odds are correct at time of article publication)
Having thrashed West Ham 3-0 in their earlier meeting back in November, Nottingham Forest now have a chance to secure their first season double over the Irons since 1983/84.
Trouble is, Forest are coming into this game on the back of a serious slump in results, winning just one of their last seven across all competitions.
Santo and his men have endured back-to-back draws and they’re taking on a West Ham side which has been plagued by home draws in recent weeks.
The Irons are on a run of three straight London Stadium draws, with Bournemouth, Southampton and Tottenham all coming away with a point.
We’re backing that trend to continue on Sunday, backing the draw at around the 9/4 mark.
We are also adding both teams to score to the mix. BTTS landed during all three of West Ham’s home draws. It also landed in Nottingham’s last two outings as well.
With the Irons looking to finish the season on a high, we’re backing the hosts to have their fair share of goalscoring opportunities. With that in mind, we’re going with three or more shots on target from the home side.
On the other end of the field, we are putting our trust into Chris Wood and backing the New Zealand man to have at least one shot on target during Sunday’s fixture.
West Ham v Nottingham Forest: How to watch and listen
West Ham v Nottingham Forest will be broadcast live in the UK on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Premier League, Sky Ultra HD, NOW TV, SKY GO Extra and Sky GO. Live radio coverage will be available on BBC Radio 5 Live.
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