Current holders Leicester City travel to the City Ground to take on Nottingham Forest in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Jake Pearson has previewed the fixture, picking out his best bet.
Football betting tips: FA Cup
1pt Over 2.5 Goals at Evens (bet365)
Nottingham Forest’s reward for their 1-0 victory over Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup is another tie against a Premier League side, and it is a match-up that Steve Cooper’s men will fancy their chances in.
Cooper has once again displayed his managerial credentials during his short time at Forest, taking a team who have been going through the motions in the Sky Bet Championship for a number of years now, and transforming them into bona fide play-off contenders.
Only four sides have picked up more points across the last ten Championship games than Forest, though a 2-1 defeat away to Cardiff at the weekend did bring to an end a run of three straight victories.
Kick-off time: 16:00 GMT, Sunday
TV channel: BBC One
Nottingham Forest 5/2 | Draw 12/5 | Leicester 1/1
Unlike Forest, who are on a clear upward trajectory under Cooper, Leicester appear to be a club in limbo at present.
Having spent the last two seasons challenging for Champions League football, the Foxes’ current position of tenth in the Premier League is not what Brendan Rodgers would have been anticipating at the beginning of the campaign.
Leicester have not been the side we have come accustomed to seeing on a weekly basis this term; defensively the issues are rife, conceding the sixth most goals in the division, as well as allowing the third most chances as per expected goals (xG).
Now 12 points outside the top four, Leicester’s season hinges on the cup competitions.
Though they are now into the Europa Conference League, Rodgers’ admission that he knew “nothing” about the competition alludes to how high that may rank on the list of priorities at the King Power.
As holders of the FA Cup though, there is a good chance that the Foxes will place plenty of emphasis on putting together a solid run in this year’s competition, and if their 4-1 demolition of Watford in the last round is anything to go by, we could be in for an entertaining affair in Nottingham.
The Championship isn’t the highest scoring of leagues, but a season ticket at the City Ground would have seen you get your money’s worth, 60% of Forest home matches seeing three or more goals, the third highest in the division.
Entertaining football is certainly coming to the fore more and more under Cooper as well, with Forest’s last eight matches averaging 2.63 goals, with 62% of those matches going over the 2.5 goals mark.
As far as Leicester are concerned, their matches have averaged more goals than games involving any other team in the Premier League this term (3.55).
Only Liverpool matches have seen three or more goals scored on more occasions than Leicester matches, and this is a trend that shows no signs of slowing up – Leicester’s last eight league matches have averaged a whopping 4.25 goals per game.
Away from home, they provide even more goalmouth action, with only one of their nine league fixtures away from the King Power seeing less than three goals.
Safe to say, this has all the ingredients to be a thrilling game of football.
OVER 2.5 GOALS is available to back at even money (also at 2.02 with bet365 in their Asian Lines section), and that sort of price makes plenty of appeal given the nature of these two sides.
Nottingham Forest v Leicester score prediction and best bets
- 1pt Over 2.5 Goals at evens (bet365)
Score prediction: Nottingham Forest 1-3 Leicester (Sky Bet odds: 14/1)
Odds correct 1540 GMT (02/02/22)
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