Subs: Lecomte, Reed, Cairney, Traore, Kusi-Asare, Castagne, King, Diop, Ridgeon.
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Nottingham Forest: John Victor, Savona, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Anderson, Douglas Luiz, Hutchinson, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi, Igor Jesus.
Subs: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Kalimuendo, Dominguez, McAtee, Bakwa, Zinchenko, Abbott.
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Referee: Anthony Taylor
n VAR: Paul Howard
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Fulham have won five of their last six Premier League matches against Nottingham Forest, winning all three of those played at Craven Cottage by the aggregate score of 9-1. On the other hand, Forest have won four of their last six league games, while Fulham have lost their last two league games at home. So something has to give. But what? Kick-off is at 8pm GMT, after which we’ll find out. It’s on!
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Key events
42 min: All of Fulham’s best work is down the left. Robinson again advances, crossing for Jimenez at the near post. The ball’s a little bit behind the striker, but he corkscrews his neck to slap a header into the side netting. That wasn’t far away from the top-left corner, though you’d have asked questions had Victor allowed it in.
41 min: Milenkovic stands his ground as Smith Rowe tries to advance down the left. The two come together, the latter coming off worse. Milenkovic slightly fortunate not to go into the book for his stubbornness.
39 min: Robinson again finds space down the left. His low cross is deflected back to the edge of the box, where Lukic tries to steer a first-time shot across a flat-footed Victor and into the bottom left. But it’s always heading wide. Again, that’s better from Fulham, and their xG has now zipped all the way up to the heady heights of 0.22.
38 min: … but this is better from Fulham. Smith Rowe slips Robinson into space down the left with a cute diagonal pass from infield; Robinson’s cross is half-cleared, but Fulham come again down the same flank, Kevin nipping into the area and seeing his shot deflected over the bar. Nothing comes of the set piece, other than an instantly blocked Jimenez effort from the edge of the D.
36 min: … and to illustrate/substantiate that point, the current xG is Fulham 0.11, Forest 0.3.
35 min: A while back, it felt like an opening goal was on the cards. Now, not so much.
33 min: Luiz has a crack from the best part of 30 yards. Wide right. So wide right. “Hiya Scott! There’s a cat called Kevin that lives on my street, who also tends to become wracked with self-doubt when through on goal. Coincidence?” Folks, we need to talk about Mac Millings.
32 min: Andersen in space on the right touchline. He’s got four team-mates in the Fulham six-yard box, but balloons his cross miles over everyone’s head. Uncharacteristically poor from one of the best midfielders of the season so far.
30 min: Jimenez scampers down the inside-left channel. He’s got Robinson to his right, just inside the box, but tries to feed Kevin on the overlap instead. Unfortunately Kevin’s checked his run, and the ball runs out for a goal kick. Jimenez not happy. Quite a lot of the Fulham supporters too. A frustrating miscommunication.
29 min: Andersen is made of stronger stuff than most, and instantly puts that finger to use, along with seven others and two thumbs, to disdainfully wrestle Jesus to the floor in a centre-circle struggle. Suffice to say he’s fine.
27 min: Andersen’s digit back in situ, he’s able to continue. Ow, though. Ow. Ooyah. Ow.
25 min: Play is stopped because Andersen has dislocated his finger. Ow. The physio comes on to do some snappin’ and a-strappin’. Andersen understandably doesn’t look down to watch him do his work.
23 min: Jimenez has a crack from the edge of the D. Blocked. Both teams are looking lively, and both sets of fans are responding chorally.
22 min: Wilson rampages in from the right and goes over on the edge of the D. Most of Craven Cottage screams for a free kick, but the Forest defence had swarmed him legally. Play goes on.
21 min: Luiz probes patiently down the right. Suddenly he whips a low curling cross into the Fulham box. Jesus slides in, clear of the defence, telescoping a leg. Any contact and he’d surely be poking home. But he can’t quite reach it. Both teams are nearly getting it right in attack. It’s a decent game.
19 min: That was a big chance for Kevin. A poor touch mid-dribble took him wider left than he’d hoped, allowing the defenders to get back in some semblance of position. And that was that.
17 min: He’s able to continue all right! He takes receipt of a ball in midfield and skates off down the inside-left channel . He’s free on goal! Easy as that! But he doesn’t back himself in a footrace against the covering Milenkovic and Savona, chopping back and losing all momentum. He takes a touch infield and attempts a curler, but Savona blocks the nanosecond the ball comes off his boot.
15 min: Happily, Kevin sits up and then gets to his feet. He’ll be able to continue.
14 min: Kevin remains face down on the turf as the physio checks his neck. As he fell over, he butted Berge at full speed, so he’ll have felt that. No chances taken. A cold night for everyone else to be hanging around, mind.
12 min: Kevin clatters into his own man Berge and goes down holding his head. Play stops so he can get checked over.
10 min: Robinson, out on the Fulham left, plays a dismal ball infield, straight to Jesus on the edge of the box. Jesus takes one touch too many before shooting, allowing Andersen to come across and block with a last-ditch slide. Appalling defending, followed by a much more impressive example of it. Robinson owes Andersen a mince pie.
8 min: Hutchinson sprays a glorious right-to-left pass to set Forest off down the flank. Williams is fed into space by Hudson-Odio. He reaches the byline before clipping a low cross infield for Jesus, who should do better than slicing a shot wide left from ten yards. That was a very decent chance, and a fine team move to boot.
6 min: Berge slips Robinson into space on the left. He crosses promisingly, but once again there’s nobody in white centrally to meet the ball. Fulham are looking good down this left flank.
4 min: The game settles down. It took a while. “I enjoy the odd chat with my postie,” begins Charles Antaki, promisingly. “He’s a Forest fan who correctly predicted that they would be beaten three-nil by Arsenal, but who is equally confident that his team will easily stay up this year. Also that Arsenal will win the league, which seems something less of a certainty. Anyway! Our chats usually work round to how dismally badly the Post Office treats their workers, which should be no surprise, I suppose. So this is a good time to wish every postal worker a happy Christmas, and may their overtime make up for the hassles they’ve been put through for the rest of the year.” Preach on, brother. Solidarity. Join a union, kids.
2 min: Hudson-Odoi makes his presence felt up the other end, pulling a cross back for Jesus, whose shot is instantly blocked. Both teams already showing signs of being well up for this!
1 min: The first minute of the game still isn’t up, and Anderson’s clearing header hits Hudson-Odoi on the chest, the ball then rearing up and brushing the arm. A huge shout for a penalty kick. It’s never going to be given.
Fulham get the ball rolling. Forest are kicking towards the Putney End and the Cottage in this first half. And within 12 seconds, Kevin makes ground down the left and whistles a low cross through the six-yard box. What a delivery! Unfortunately for the hosts, there’s nobody there in white to poke home.
The teams are out. Fulham wearing snow-white shirts, Forest bedecked in Santa-style red third-choice navy blue. Well there goes that festive riff. Ho ho no. Meanwhile here’s some pre-match pessimism from Richard Hirst: “I wondered how Fulham would manage to replace our three Nigerian absentees and now I know: we can’t. I don’t think the Forest defence will be worrying too much, given our lack of creativity and scoring power. Harry Wilson has a lot to do.” We’ll be off in a minute.
Fulham manager Marco Silva talks to Sky Sports. “The team reacted well [against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup] … a tough place to go … we were very competitive again … we fought until the last minutes … a better first half than the second … it was tough to take the result … but there were positives … our identity … some good individual performances … we just want to be more consistent throughout the game.”
A win tonight would be huge for both teams. Neither Fulham nor Forest are in trouble at the moment … but they’re trouble-adjacent, and three points would make their Christmas morning eggnog taste that much sweeter. Victory tonight springs Fulham feasibly as high as 11th, though they’d need to give Forest a four-goal battering to get there. But any victory would take them above Spurs, while a two-goal win sees them leapfrog Brentford as well, and that would surely be more than satisfactory in warming their capital cockles. Meanwhile Forest can only get as high as 15th with a win, but that’d put them ahead of Fulham, and more importantly eight points clear of the relegation zone.
Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche speaks to Sky Sports. “Doug [Luiz] has certainly got Premier League experience … a very good footballer … on the verge of being fully match fit … Mats [Sels] has only had four days training … a bad finger … a groin … we’ve had to be careful with that … but John [Victor] has earned the right for this one with two very strong performances … [the 3-0 win over Spurs] was certainly the most consistent performance [this season] … we want the players to keep building and delivering at that level … we know we’re going to have to be strong tonight.”
Fulham make one change from the starting XI selected for last Wednesday’s 2-1 League Cup defeat at Newcastle. Bernd Leno comes back into the team, with cup keeper Benjamin Lecomte dropping to the bench. Calvin Bassey, Samuel Chukwueze and Alex Iwobi are all on Afcon duty with Nigeria.
Forest make one change to their starting team after the 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur eight days ago. Douglas Luiz replaces Ibrahim Sangaré, who is off to Afcon with Côte d’Ivoire.
The teams
Fulham: Leno, Tete, Andersen, Cuenca, Robinson, Lukic, Berge, Wilson, Smith Rowe, Kevin, Jimenez.
Subs: Lecomte, Reed, Cairney, Traore, Kusi-Asare, Castagne, King, Diop, Ridgeon.
Nottingham Forest: John Victor, Savona, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Anderson, Douglas Luiz, Hutchinson, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi, Igor Jesus.
Subs: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Kalimuendo, Dominguez, McAtee, Bakwa, Zinchenko, Abbott.
Referee: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Paul Howard
Preamble
Fulham have won five of their last six Premier League matches against Nottingham Forest, winning all three of those played at Craven Cottage by the aggregate score of 9-1. On the other hand, Forest have won four of their last six league games, while Fulham have lost their last two league games at home. So something has to give. But what? Kick-off is at 8pm GMT, after which we’ll find out. It’s on!