Kick-off: 1400, 05/03/2023
Stadium: City Ground
TV: Sky Sports
Nottingham Forest look a percentage pick to boost their Premier League survival hopes and pile even more pressure on Everton.
The Reds have claimed 19 of their 25 points at the City Ground, while the Toffees have suffered from travel sickness throughout the current campaign.
Punters can get 33/20 for a home win and that is our first Nottingham Forest vs Everton prediction.
Forest confident over home form
Forest must pick themselves up from a 4-0 drubbing at West Ham, when collapsing late on as all of the goals came in the final 20 minutes.
Steve Cooper’s side are still in the relegation mix after picking up just one win and scoring only three times in 12 road games.
“It’s not good enough from us, it’s as simple as that,” defender Joe Worrall told Match of the Day.
“On the road, we haven’t been good enough this season. We need to score more and stop conceding. It’s more inflicting damage on ourselves.
“We’ll back ourselves to beat anyone at home I think, but we need to try and take some positives from this.”
Fortunately, Forest have managed to consistently put poor away performances behind them once returning to the City Ground.
In front of their own fans, they are unbeaten in eight league games, including a win over Liverpool and draws with Manchester City and Chelsea.
Of their five top-flight triumphs at this venue, four have been 1-0 victories and the other was 2-0.
Looking at the Nottingham Forest vs Everton odds, we like 7/2 for the hosts to prevail and under 2.5 goals.
Last Forest line-up: Navas, Worrall, Williams, Lodi, Felipe, Shelvey, Colback, Gibbs-White, Johnson, Freuler, Wood.
Renan Lodi is a doubt with a knock and he could join Serge Aurier (calf), Ryan Yates (illness), Taiwo Awoniyi (groin), Dean Henderson (thigh), Willy Boly, Scott McKenna, Cheikhou Kouyate, Moussa Niakhate (all hamstring), Omar Richards (leg) and Giulian Biancone (knee) on the sidelines.
Toffees struggling up front
Everton stayed in the bottom three, four points adrift of Forest, following Wednesday’s 4-0 thumping at Arsenal.
The Toffees have edged out Arsenal and Leeds at home since Sean Dyche took charge, but he is yet to address their poor away form.
In their last eight road trips, they have now secured just two points and scored a miserly one goal.
Dyche told evertontv: “There are plenty of good players here and now it’s about standing up individually, because it rubs off very quickly.
“One of my sayings is, ‘Be the man who makes the difference’ and that rubs off, but now the whole team has to go out with that mentality.
“We’ve seen it since I’ve been here, so it is there, but now we have to take it on the road because we can’t just rely on our home form and home fans.”
With Dominic Calvert-Lewin still nursing a hamstring injury, though, Dyche is severely limited in his attacking options.
Summer signing Neal Maupay has only netted once in 20 appearances for the club, back in September.
Ellis Simms did well during a loan spell with Sunderland in the Championship but has drawn a blank in five outings for the Toffees since being recalled in January.
For Forest, Brennan Johnson has been ticking along nicely with seven successful strikes in all competitions.
He scored in a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park earlier this term and is backed at 9/2 to break the deadlock here in our Nottingham Forest vs Everton betting tips.
Last Everton line-up: Pickford, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko, Coleman, McNeil, Onana, Doucoure, Iwobi, Gueye, Maupay.
Calvert-Lewin remains a doubt as he continues to struggle with a long-term hamstring problem.
Midfielder James Garner (back) and defender Nathan Patterson (knee) both played for the under-21s in midweek and could rejoin the squad.
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