No love lost for Espirito Santo ahead of Wolves reunion

Nuno Espirito Santo chose not to dwell on his time with Wolves, with full focus on maintaining Nottingham Forest’s unbeaten start to the Premier League season when his former side visits the City Ground on Saturday.

Espirito Santo spent four years at the helm in the West Midlands, helping them win promotion to the Premier League during the 2017-18 season.

But full focus for the Forest head coach turns to league action following their EFL Cup exit to Newcastle United on penalties in midweek after their 1-0 win over Southampton five days ago.

However, with the transfer window slamming shut ahead this weekend’s round of action, Espirito Santo said he is keen to bolster his squad, but would not be doing so without careful consideration.

“There’s a lot of love and respect from our time that we worked there – it was special,” Espirito Santo said. “It’s a different game [to usual] and I wish them all the best for the other 36 games of the season.

“We have 36 hours, I think the club is working to bring solutions and options to make us stronger and have a competitive squad.

“It’s all about the profile of the player – it’s not easy, especially in these last hours but it’s also not easy because we already have talent and quality in the squad. As a club we are working and I expect to bring in some players.”

Four Forest debuts pic.twitter.com/qgAk5dPEfB

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) August 29, 2024

Wolves, meanwhile, are yet to get off the mark in the league after their 6-2 thrashing against Chelsea at Molineux but progressed to the third round of the EFL Cup with a win over Burnley on Wednesday.

The encounter against the Championship side offered Gary O’Neil the opportunity to give some of his fringe players some much needed minutes after a productive pre-season campaign.

But much like his opposite number, O’Neil was looking ahead to Friday’s deadline, insisting that some big decisions would be made before they make the short journey to the East Midlands.

“I am pleased. I thought we looked good and we did really well,” O’Neil said. “It was an opportunity for some players to get minutes because they have worked hard during training and in pre-season.

“I was confident that we would see a good team performance and they did not let us down.

“It was good to see where a few of them are though, because there are some big decisions coming up in terms of transfers and team selections.”

Into round three of the @Carabao_Cup.

pic.twitter.com/ZXXdXBi9kq

— Wolves (@Wolves) August 28, 2024

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Nottingham Forest – Morgan Gibbs-White

Since Gibbs-White’s Premier League debut for Forest after arriving from Wolves, only five players have created more chances from open play in the competition than he has (108).

He has continued his fine form into this campaign, already creating six open play chances which is a total only bettered by Liverpool’s Luis Diaz (seven) after the first two games.

Wolves – Matheus Cunha

Matheus Cunha has become a pivotal player for O’Neils side in the attacking areas and has now been involved in 17 goals in his last 19 Premier League starts for the club (11 goals and six assists).

The Brazilian has also enjoyed fixtures against Forest, scoring three goals in his three appearances against them, only scoring more against Chelsea (four).

MATCH PREDICTION: NOTTINGHAM FOREST WIN

Nottingham Forest are expected to continue their fine start to the Premier League season, winning 45.6% of Opta’s data-led simulations, with Wolves given a 29% chance of emerging victorious at the City Ground.

The Reds have taken four points from their opening two games this season (W1 D1). They last avoided defeat in their opening three games in a top-flight season in 1995-96, going on to finish 9th.

No side has had more shots than Forest in the Premier League this season (37), while they have had the most shots on target of any team (16). Since returning to the Premier League in 2022-23, Forest have had eight or more shots on target in five games – four of those have come in their 23 games under Nuno Espirito Santo, compared to once in 55 games under Steve Cooper.

However, their recent record against their Midlands rivals is one they will be looking to change. Forest have won just one of their last 11 league games against Wolves (D5 L5), last beating them 2-0 at Molineux in January 2018,

Wolves are unbeaten in their last six away league games against Saturday’s opponents (W3 D3) since a 3-1 loss in March 2013, but have lost their last five Premier League matches, conceding 18 goals. They last had a longer losing run when losing the final three games of 2020-21 and opening three games of 2021-22.

Wolves have also won just one of their last 20 Premier League matches in August (D9 L10), a 1-0 away win at Everton last year. Overall, they’ve won just 15% of their games in August (5/33), the lowest win ratio in that month by any side to play in more than one season in Premier League history.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Nottingham Forest – 45.6%

Draw – 25.4%

Wolves – 29%