Jake Pearson previews Nottingham Forest's trip to the Vitality Stadium to take on automatic promotion-chasing Bournemouth, picking out his best bet for the match-up.
Football betting tips: Championship
1pt Both Teams to Score ‘NO’ at 21/20 (BetVictor)
Playing on Friday evening presents Bournemouth with the opportunity to go seven points clear of third-place Blackburn, pulling automatic promotion ever-nearer, and still with a game in hand remaining.
The Cherries look the best of the rest in this season’s Sky Bet Championship, with runaway leaders Fulham looking all-but set for a return to the Premier League as champions of the English second tier, but a tough home fixture against an in-form Nottingham Forest team is an unwanted proposition for Scott Parker’s men.
Kick-off time: 19:45 GMT, Friday
TV Channel: Sky Sports Main Event
Bournemouth 4/5 | Draw 13/5 | Nottm Forest 7/2
Steve Cooper has done a brilliant job to turn Forest’s season around, transforming them from potential relegation fodder into genuine play-off challengers, and victory at the Vitality Stadium would actually lift them into the top six, albeit perhaps only for a day.
They arrive here unbeaten in three matches, and in fact, only Fulham and Sheffield United have taken more points than Cooper’s men over the last six fixtures (W4-D1-L1).
Since Cooper’s appointment, Forest have shown definite promotion form, taking an average of 1.86 points across his 23 matches in charge. For context, only the top two in the division have a better points-per-game ratio this season.
All but one of Forest’s clean sheets this season have come under Cooper, and though perhaps more closely associated with accomplished attacking football, there are reasons to believe the visitors can limit Bournemouth in this fixture.
In only four matches under Cooper’s tutelage have Forest conceded more than once, and for all Bournemouth’s attacking exploits against the league’s lesser lights, against more formidable opponents the Cherries have found it difficult to find the back of the net.
In a run of four games against Fulham (1st), Blackburn (3rd), Middlesbrough (6th) and QPR (4th) towards the back end of last year, Bournemouth managed just two goals.
On the other side of things, while Forest have found the net in five of their last six league matches, they are up against the league’s joint-best defence – the 26 goals conceded by Bournemouth is matched only by Fulham.
Considering also that no team have kept more clean sheets than the Cherries this season (43%), backing BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE ‘NO’ at odds-against makes appeal.
Bournemouth matches have averaged 2.50 goals per game this season, with Forest games at 2.45 – below the league average – while ten of the last 16 matches involving these two would have seen this selection land.
Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest best bets and score prediction
- 1pt Both Teams to Score ‘NO’ at 21/20 (BetVictor)
Score prediction: Bournemouth 0-0 Nottingham Forest (Sky Bet odds: 9/1)
Odds correct at 1820 GMT (15/02/22)
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