Wolverhampton vs Nottingham Forest

Monday’s Premier League clash against Wolverhampton Wanderers will be an emotional one for Nottingham Forest’s head coach Nuno Espírito Santo – a man who had a spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Ever clever the Tricky Trees continue on a path that seemingly will lead them to the champions League via an upset after beating Everton the last time they were in action while the hosts here needed an injury time equaliser to secure a draw away to Tottenham Hotspur.

Known for plotting Wolves’ rise from the Championship to the group stages of the Europa League, Santo is doing his Old Gold trick at the City Ground and has submitted his entry for the Premier League ‘s Manager of the Season award before half of the season has been played.

The Gunners, the Blues and the Sky Blues have scored only one goal against the Merseyside club this season, but the Reds headed all three ‘Big Six’ giants when Forest beat Everton 2-0 at Goodison on December 29 with contributions from Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White.

Only the most incredible of performances, a fifth successive top flight victory, saw Forest ring in the New Year in third place in the Premier League, and although the position could be overtaken over the weekend, come the start of Monday’s kick off, it will be third and a Champions League place.

Forest boasts a miserly backline that bears the stamp of the Wood-inspired attack; the team has managed to register shut-outs in each of the last three top-flight encounters; and now targets six consecutive top-flight wins for the first time since the new format was ushered in in 1992.

Since the 1966-67 premiership season the Garibaldi have not enjoyed consecutive top flight wins in the same number of games as they have done this season but they will not rest on that particular achievement much is made here of the fact that Forest has opened the scoring in 15 out of 19 premier league games this season.

Wolves' last 2024 matchup with another of the Portuguese's previous employers coincided with Santo's reunion with his former squad on Monday. Vitor Pereira's undefeated start continued at the home of Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham Hotspur.

Even though Wolves' records have improved during the typical new manager bounce, if Ipswich Town defeats Fulham on Monday night, they will drop back to the shame of 18th place; on Saturday, Aston Villa did them a favor by defeating Leicester City.

Additionally, Wolves has not lost any of their last five Premier League encounters with Nottingham Forest; nonetheless, all four of their prior meetings have finished in a draw, including a 1-1 City Ground draw in August in which a goal from Jean-Ricner Bellegarde gave the Old Gold the advantage.

Going undefeated in his first three top-flight games as manager, Pereira has already accomplished a Wolves feat that none of his predecessors have been able to accomplish since 1977. Additionally, Monday's hosts have scored multiple goals in four of their last five Molineux games, and they haven't lost a competitive home game since April.