Key events
84 min: Nasty clash of heads leaves Hudson-Odoi on the deck. The winger isn’t going to be able to continue and gets to his feet gingerly after some treatment. Replaced by Ramon Sosa.
Awoniyi is also coming on for the goalscorer, Chris Wood.
82 min: Palace are finally beginning to mobilise after going behind. Mateta makes himself useful in winning a couple of 50/50s in Forest’s box. He cuts the ball back to Schlupp, who digs out a curler through a crowd of bodies towards goal. Sels sees it late but springs to his right and somehow turns the ball behind. Great save, that Schlupp effort was destined for … you guessed it … the Top Bin.
81 min: Mateta has barely had a kick since coming on but gets to the byline and digs out a cross to the near post, where Sels collects. Nobody in yellow was willing to gamble on that cross.
79 min: Some subs to keep you updated with.
Forest: Elliot Anderson and Alex Moreno are off for Neco Williams and Morato.
Palace: Schlupp and Ismaila Sarr replace Will Hughes and Tyrick Mitchell.
77 min: More good work from Anderson, who is my pick for the player of the match so far. The Forest man plays a neat one-two, leaves Lacroix on the deck before Guehi clears the danger.
75 min: “Interesting that you write ‘The Top Bin’ in describing Eze’s shot” emails Gary Naylor. “I always thought ‘Top Bins’ was the generic term for what used to be the ‘Top Corner’ and not a plural in the sense of a ‘Top (left) Bin’ and a ‘Top (right) Bin’. Is Susie Dent available at all?”
I always thought that the origin of the term came from Soccer AM, the Saturday morning football show, in which contestants and guests would literally shoot towards a bin in the top left and top right of the goal. So fairly sure I’m right in saying that a singular top bin is fine.
73 min: Since the goal has gone in, it’s Forest that are pressing for a second, rather than Palace pushing for an equaliser.
72 min: A neat lay-off from Wood releases Anderson, and the midfielder shoots at goal. It takes a deflection off Guehi and Henderson is forced to react and save with his right boot.
70 min: Bit of housekeeping, Dominguez has been booked, although I’m not certain what for. Some are suggesting it was for kicking the ball away, although he did so from a Forest free kick … hmmm.
69 min: Palace make an immediate change: Mateta on for Nketiah, who I think is unfortunate to come off. Nketiah certainly thinks so, swearing and looking to the heavens as he slumps in his seat in the dugout.
67 min: Wood is just the third Forest player to score 20 Premier League goals, after Stan Collymore and Brian Roy.
GOAL! Nottingham Forest 1-0 Crystal Palace (Wood 65)
A goal out of nothing! Forest lump a hopeful ball forward, Wood latches onto a loose ball outside the box and shoots early, squeezing the ball in at the near post past a despairing Henderson. Replays show that it’s a bit of a goalkeeping howler from the former Forest man, with the ball going under Henderson’s elbow at the near post! Forest don’t care one bit, of course.
63 min: Forest make a change: Elanga off for Jota Silva.
62 min: “Re your David James video”, emails James Humphries, “to repurpose one of Big Nev’s all-timers: well done, David, they’re
60 min: So nearly a goal-of-the-season contender from Eze! But an absolutely magnificent save save from Sels denies the Palace man from range. Eze had hit a shot from a full 30 yards out, with the ball flying towards the top bin, but Sels just got a fingertip on it to turn it onto the bar and behind! What a shot, what a save!
58 min: Yates goes down right on the edge of Palace’s box under a challenge from Kamada, but the referee waves play on! Palace break, with Nketiah striving away from Anderson in midfield. The Forest man takes matters into his own hands, brings Nketiah down and takes his booking.
57 min: Delighted to say this game has got its mojo back. Woof.
55 min: Palace’s best move of the match! Nketiah sends Murillo to the shops with a neat stepover on the left flank, drives to the byline. The striker ignores a free Munoz at the back post, instead cutting the ball back to Hughes on the penalty spot, but Moreno makes a stupendous sliding block on the blonde Palace No 19. Great tackle, and an important one, Hughes’ fierce shot looked goalbound.
54 min: Chance for Palace! Munoz swings in a better crosss, Eze volleys towards goal! It’s a bit of a scuffed effort but still forces Sels into a save, the rebound falls kindly to Kamada, who has the whole goal at his mercy from five yards out … but the Japanese only knees the ball down into Sels again. Double save! Replays show that Kamada was offside, so the rebound wouldn’t have counted, but it was still some miss!
51 min: Better from Palace, who are smoothly moving it through midfield but can’t find the final pass. First Hughes plays a loose ball, then Munoz swings a wild cross over everyone after some promising touches. Glasner, on the sidelines, roars encouragement from the Palace dugout, clapping his hands willingly.
49 min: “I’m rarely as conscious of being haplessly addicted to the beautiful game as when I spend a
47 min: Hate to say it, but Eze is really off the boil. Not sure if he’s trying to do too much in Olise’s absence, or if he’s just lacking in options or confidence, but this is not a vintage performance. So far …
Peeeeeeeep! We’re off again at the City Ground.
Half-time viewing:
Half-time reading:
Half-time: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Crystal Palace
A brilliant first half an hour. An abysmal last 15 minutes. But the game is finely poised and all to play for.
45+2 min: Chance for Wood! Anderson has already supplied his striker with one beaut of a cross, and here he pings in another to Wood, who stretches but just can’t quite apply the finish. Rather than volleying the cross into the net on the stretch, he sort of controls it expertly and Henderson stoops to collect it easily.
45 min: Two minutes added on. Eze and Chalobah try their luck but Forest’s defender throw themselves in front of the shots.
43 min: It is Palace that are finishing this half the stronger, although the vistors are lacking some width.
41 min: Yellow card for Kamada, who drags back Aina.
One of my favourite current stats is that Kamada has only ever played for clubs (or his country Japan) that have a bird as their crest/badge:
Sagan Tosu, Eintracht Frankfurt, Sint-Truidense VV, Lazio and Palace.
38 min: Suddenly the game is crying out for half-time.
“Maybe panic mega silly spending is actually the way to go because Forest have somehow managed to chisel a decent team with a decent manager out of that chaos,” emails Edan Tal. “I always thought keeping the team that got promoted would be a good idea, but I’m leaning more towards total reinvention now.”
35 min: The game has lost some of its fluency. A few fouls and misplaced passes.
32 min: A third of the game gone. Forest have shaded it, but Eze and Nketiah have shown enough to worry the home side.
29 min: What a player Murillo is at centre back for Forest. Reads the game beautifully, pacy, strong and has a wicked eye for a pass. There have already been four of five moments in this game that could end up in a YouTube video entitled ‘Murillo: Nottingham Forest 2024-25 highlights | HD’.
27 min: “Re The Geordie Maradona,” emails Richard Woods of Elliot Anderson, “we saw a whole lot of that kind of dribbling at the Mem while Billy Elliott was on loan to the Gas [Bristol Rovers]. Can you imagine the fun League Two defenders had trying to deal with him? They say you should never fall in love with a loan player. But he truly was hard not to love”.
I wasn’t aware of that loan spell, but I can see a decent return of eight goals in 21 appearances for Anderson, back in 2022 when he was just a teenager.
25 min: Nketiah wriggles free on the left but rather snatches at a shot from a narrow angle. The former Arsenal man is obviously desperate to score his first Premier League goal for Palace.
23 min: Looks like Yates fell awkwardly in climbing to head that ball. But the fan favourite is back on his feet, to the cheers of the home supporters. He’ll be OK to continue.
22 min: What a game this is! Now it’s Forest who hit the post! From a corner, the ball is cleared before being hopefully lumped back into Palace’s area. Yates rises highest at the back post and heads towards goal. The ball bounces awkwardly in front of Henderson and hits the far post, before Mitchell clears for Palace! That could easily have gone in.
19 min: Back come Palace on the counter attack. Similarly to Eze in the opening minutes, Nketiah finds a pocket of space between Forest’s midfield and defence and drives forward unchallenged. Nketiah has options left and right but surprisingly lets fly, catching Sels cold. The shot curls away wickedly from the Forest keeper and just clips the outside of the post. So close!
17 min: Two huge chances for Chris Wood! The striker is first denied from a corner at the back post by a last-ditch goalline clearance, and hacked clear by Munoz. The ball is recycled, Anderson picking the ball up in plenty of space, and he delivers a Beckham-esque deep cross on a dime for Wood, who heads wide. Oooooh, you’d expect him to put that away, but the New Zealander mistimed his diving header.
15 min: Anderson with some quick feet that would make Di Maria blush! The former Newcastle man twice dances through Palace tackles, the latter expertly past Munoz and Hughes, before forcing Henderson into a save. Wow, genuinely haven’t seen dribbling like that in a while.
13 min: Of course, just as I say that, Hudson-Odoi breaks a tackle, gets to the byline but his cut back to Yates was just behind the midfielder, and the move fizzles out. Hudson-Odoi may have been offside, but that was better from Forest.
12 min: First real spell of possession for Forest, who haven’t created anything of note.
9min: Kamada is the next to try his luck from range, but the Japanese loses his balance as he strikes it, and it’s a tame effort. Yates and Dominguez, the two sitting Forest midfielders are struggling to get to grips with Palace’s two attacking creators, Eze and Kamada.
6 min: An early booking for Lerma, who dragged back Elanga. That is a frustrating yellow card for the combative Palace midfielder, who will now have to watch his step.
5 min: Close from Eze! The England international cuts in from the right flank and drives straight at goal. Milenkovic retreats all the way to his 18-yard box without putting a glove on the Palace man, who shifts the ball and shoots just wide of the top corner! Oooooo, that was close. Sels was rooted to the spot and must have breathed a sigh of relief to see it fly just past the upright.
2 min: Aina at right back is a tidy little player for Forest. He’s lightning quick, too, and has to deal with the dual threat of Kamada as a floating playmaker just inside him and Mitchell, who will be looking to push up from left wing-back.
Peeeeeeep! And we’re off. Forest in their famous red and white, Palace in an all-yellow number.
The teams are out! Interesting to see what sort of reception Dean Henderson gets tonight in goal. He had a loan spell at Forest a couple of seasons ago.
Forest look like they are lining up in a 4-2-3-1. It will be interesting to see who fills in for Gibbs-White in the No 10 role. Both Anderson (acting as a sort of all-action Scott McTominay-style playmaker) and Dominguez are capable of playing there.
Nuno speaks:
We are missing some players but the squad is ready to go. Palace are a tough team. I don’t see any positives in being up in the stands [for this game]. I’ll be communicating with my staff.
Interesting to see Nketiah start ahead of Mateta, who was on fire for Palace at the back end of last season and one of the players of the tournament at the Olympics for France in the summer, but already looks fatigued … and it’s October. Nketiah has often (and perhaps a little surprisingly) been deployed as a wide forward but gets his chance in the centre tonight.
Forest have a physically strong duo in Milenkovic and Murillo, who would have been expecting a battle with Mateta. Nketiah will hope to drop deep, drag Milenkovic and Murillo out of position, and then find some space in the box to finish instinctively.
The teams!
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Alex Moreno, Yates, Dominguez, Elanga, Anderson, Hudson-Odoi, Wood.
Subs: Boly, Sosa, Jota Silva, Toffolo, Omobamidele, Awoniyi, Williams, Morato, Carlos Miguel.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Lacroix, Guehi, Chalobah, Munoz, Hughes, Lerma, Mitchell, Kamada, Eze, Nketiah.
Subs: Matthews, Ward, Sarr, Mateta, Schlupp, Clyne, Wharton, Kporha, Agbinone.
Preamble
We are seven games into the season and still nobody is any of the wiser as to what these teams are, or where they will finish. Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace could feasibly both finish in the top half come May 2025, or could easily be relegated and most people would just shrug and think ‘yep, makes sense’.
Palace finished last season like a train under Oliver Glasner, with Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze, Adam Wharton all starring under the Austrian manager. But this time around, Olise is departed, Eze is woefully out of form and Wharton, struggling with a groin injury picked up over the summer at the Euros, has yet to find the form or fitness that saw him included on the latest ‘Golden Boy’ list. New signings Maxence Lacroix and Eddie Nketiah are talented but have so far failed to fill the voids left by Joachim Andersen and (whisper it) Jordan Ayew. But the truth is that Glasner, along with the rest of us, are still trying to figure out what is going wrong.
Forest are another conundrum. Very mediocre home form and excellent away form (four matches that include a win at Anfield and Southampton and draws at Chelsea and Brighton) mean Nuno Espírito Santo’s side could spring into eighth with a victory tonight.
Any win will be without their talisman, Morgan Gibbs-White (who is suspended for his red card against Brighton), manager Nuno (who is serving the first of a three-match suspension for his reaction to that red card) and a stadium ban for owner Evangelos Marinakis (who was found guilty of improper conduct following Forest’s defeat against Fulham in September).
That said, the City Ground under the lights always fun, especially with Big Chris Wood leading the line. Vibes are high in the east Midlands. Do join me for the 8pm BST kick-off. I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen.
