Nottingham Forest and Brentford will both be aiming to return to winning ways in Saturday afternoon's Premier League contest at the City Ground.
Steve Cooper's side were demolished 5-0 by Arsenal last time out, while the visitors recovered from a 4-0 thumping at Aston Villa to draw 1-1 with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Match preview
© Reuters
Securing a famous win over Liverpool with a clean sheet in tow had seemingly set Nottingham Forest up well for a trip to the Emirates Stadium, especially with Arsenal struggling to assert their dominance in recent matches and coming into the game on the back of defeat to PSV Eindhoven.
However, the league leaders proved to be a class above Nottingham Forest on the day, as Cooper's side succumbed to a Reiss Nelson brace alongside strikes from Gabriel Martinelli, Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard in a 5-0 Emirates mauling.
The Tricky Trees had started to demonstrate a more resilient defensive streak in recent weeks, but that counted for nought at the home of the league leaders, and they remain at the bottom of the division after 12 matches, picking up a mere nine points so far.
Cooper's side are the only team in the Premier League yet to hit double figures in points this season, and they unsurprisingly possess the worst goal difference of -20 - to date, only one club from six to have had as bad a goal difference as that after 13 games has avoided relegation.
The Tricky Trees should take some encouragement from the fact that seven of their nine points this season have been won at the City Ground, where they have avoided defeat in each of their last two games, and Brentford will have to cope without their star striker this weekend.
© Reuters
Forget the new manager bounce, the new interim manager bounce was in full swing when Brentford visited an Aston Villa side fresh from giving Steven Gerrard the boot, as Aaron Danks took charge for the first of his only two games before stepping aside for Unai Emery.
Thomas Frank's side sought to recover from that 4-0 drubbing when they hosted a profligate Wolverhampton Wanderers side, and it was a game of two spectacular strikes last weekend, as Ben Mee's acrobatic effort was cancelled out by a clinical Ruben Neves finish.
Brentford established themselves as a solid Premier League outfit in their debut season, and despite winning just one of their last seven games during a sticky spell of form, the Bees are still sitting pretty in 11th in the rankings, with four points separating them from both the top seven and relegation zone.
The Bees now travel north aiming to snap a three-game winless run in the top flight, but Ivan Toney's suspension will not aid them in that regard, and the visitors are one of six sides yet to win away from home in the Premier League this term - losing each of their last two.
Brentford claimed a 3-1 success at the City Ground in December 2020 en route to the Premier League, but Forest held the Bees to a 1-1 draw just a few months later, and rediscovering a winning habit at home would not go amiss for the basement side this weekend.
Team News
© Reuters
Nottingham Forest did not pick up any fresh injury woes to add to insult at the Emirates, leaving Moussa Niakhate (thigh), Jack Colback (back), Harry Toffolo (hamstring) and Omar Richards (thigh) out of contention, but Giulian Biancone has since been ruled out for the season with an ACL injury sustained in training.
Lewis O'Brien returned from a particularly nasty illness at the Emirates and may now be considered for a start by Cooper, who should not shy away from freshening things up after their humbling North London experience.
Jesse Lingard missed a gilt-edged chance last weekend after being handed the ball on a plate by Gabriel Magalhaes and will be pushed all the way by Brennan Johnson, while Neco Williams and Orel Mangala will also be vying to return to the setup.
As mentioned, Brentford talisman Toney will miss out here after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in the draw with Wolves, so Frank is facing a quandary in the final third here.
Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo could simply form a two-man strike partnership, but Keane Lewis-Potter and Mikkel Damsgaard are both candidates to start on the left if Frank wants to continue with a three-man attack.
Mathias Jensen came off with a dead leg in the draw with Wolves but should be fine here, and Christian Norgaard's Achilles problem might let up in time for the weekend as well, but Thomas Strakosha (ankle), Pontus Jansson (thigh) and Aaron Hickey (ankle) are all absent.
Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Henderson; Aurier, Cook, McKenna, Williams; Yates, Mangala, Freuler; Johnson, Awoniyi, Gibbs-White
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Raya; Ajer, Jansson, Pinnock; Rasmussen, Jensen, Janelt, Dasilva, Henry; Mbeumo, Wissa
We say: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Brentford
Toney's suspension could tempt Frank into adopting a more defensive setup for the trip to the City Ground, and the Bees have flattered to deceive on the road so far this term.
Forest should therefore have a glint in their eyes for Saturday's battle, and home is where the heart is for Cooper's men, but we would not be surprised to see defences come out on top in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Ben Knapton
