Brighton vs Nottingham Forest tips and predictions: Tired Seagulls slip up at home again

George Dempsey
8 March 2024

Nottingham Forest will look to utilise their fresher legs when they face Brighton in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon (1400 GMT).

Match days on the back of a European fixture are notorious for throwing up funny-looking results and this meeting with Nottingham Forest looks like it has the potential.

Brighton finally met their match in Europe this week as Roma hammered them 4-0 despite the Premier League side dominating possession.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side showed an inability to deal with pace in wide areas and simple balls behind and although they created chances, Luke Steele prevented it from being six.

This has proved to be a testing period for the Seagulls who will play their fourth game in 12 days. They’ve failed to score a goal or pick up a point in their first three.

Those games were away from home but six of the last nine visitors to the AMEX Stadium have left with a point and Forest look capable.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side has faced numerous top sides in 2024 but they’ve continued to be competitive despite the gap in quality.

Notably, they’ve done their best work on the road. They showed fighting spirit against Brentford and Forest, beat Newcastle and held Wolves and Bournemouth.

They scored nine goals across those five matches by utilising set pieces, fast breaks and capitalising on defensive errors.

Brighton are certainly capable of being caught short by all of those. De Zerbi’s side have kept one clean sheet in their last 16 Premier League matches at the AMEX.

Team news

Solly March, Kaoru Mitoma, Jack Hinshelwood, James Milner, Billy Gilmour and Joao Pedro are ruled out for Brighton.

Nottingham Forest will be without Ola Aina, Nuno Tavares and Chris Wood.

Willy Boly and Nicolas Dominguez should be fit enough to feature in the squad.

Key stats

- Brighton have conceded in all but one Premier League home game this season
- Brighton have drawn six of their previous nine Premier League home games
- Nottingham Forest have scored nine goals in five away games
- Forest claimed four points from Brighton last season and were narrowly beaten (3-2) at the City Ground earlier this season