Nottingham Forest vs Sheffield United betting tips, BuildABet, best bets and preview
Football betting tips: Premier League
2pts Forest to have 14+ shots at 5/6 (Paddy Power, Betfair)
Kick-off time: 20:00 BST, Friday
Home 17/20 | Draw 12/5 | Away 7/2
Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United were both beaten on Premier League opening weekend. They were very different defeats though.
Forest should be pleased with their overall performance against Arsenal, the 2-1 loss down to moments of pure quality rather than a failure to be competitive.
Sheffield United, however, showed almost nothing at home to Crystal Palace, looking very much like a relegation favourite in the 1-0 defeat at Bramall Lane.
The Blades failed to test Palace from an attacking perspective and allowed a total of 24 shots at the other end, a fairly pitiful effort when hosting a game on your return to the Premier League.
What are the best bets?
I'm not sure a trip to the City Ground will elicit so much improvement that Forest fail to produce a good amount of attacking output.
Indeed, NOTTINGHAM FOREST TO HAVE 14 OR MORE TOTAL SHOTS is good value at 5/6 in places.
Steve Cooper's side showed glimpses of the threat they can pose teams against Arsenal, and they can have far more joy against a Sheffield United team that appear short of the quality required at this level, even at this very early stage of the season.
BuildABet @ 23/1
- Nottingham Forest to win to nil
- Morgan Gibbs-White to score or assist
- 6+ Nottingham Forest corners
- 24+ Match Total Fouls
- 40+ Booking points
CLICK HERE to back with Sky Bet
Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White is a solid source of assists and goals and can have some joy between the lines against a team he used to play for.
Sheffield United were dominated in their opening game and the hosts can apply similar pressure at the City Ground. Foul and booking totals are both up under the new refereeing initiatives, too, so it makes sense to add 24+ match fouls and 40+ booking points to the shortlist.
Score prediction: Nottingham Forest 2-0 Sheffield United (Sky Bet odds: 7/1)
Team news
Centre-back Felipe remains sidelined for Nottingham Forest, as do Omar Richards and Wayne Hennessey. All are possibly expected back in September.
Gustavo Hamer could make his debut for Sheffield United and Max Lowe is fine after suffering from cramp last weekend.
Paul Heckingbottom has also confirmed that Oli McBurnie is back in training and back in consideration, as are Vini Souza and Daniel Jebbison.
Predicted line-ups
Nottingham Forest: Turner; Aurier, McKenna, Boly, Worrall, Aina; Mangala, Danilo, Gibbs-White; Johnson, Awoniyi
Sheffield United: Foderingham; Baldock, Basham, Robinson, Egan, Lowe; Ahmedhodžić, Norwood, Hamer; Traoré, Osula
Match facts
- Nottingham Forest won their last three Premier League home games in the 2022/23 campaign.
- Sheffield United had fewer draws than any other side in the Championship last season (7). On top of this, none of the Blades' last 25 Premier League games have ended level (W7 L18).
- Only Burnley (0.3) posted a lower expected goals total in MD1 than Sheffield United (0.5), while Forest were one of three teams to post a higher xG than their opponents but still lose the match.
- Taiwo Awoniyi has scored in each of his last five Premier League games for after coming off the bench to net against Arsenal last time out.
- Despite only coming on for the final 10 minutes of their defeat against Arsenal, Anthony Elanga created more chances than any other player for Nottingham Forest (2). Indeed, three of Forest's six shots in the match came following Elanga's introduction.
Odds correct at 1200 BST (17/08/23)
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