Key events
Half-time reading:
Half-time: Crystal Palace 0-0 Nottingham Forest
Goalless at the break.
45 min: One minute added on. I think Eze must still be playing chess because I’m not sure I have seen him on the pitch in the first half. Hope he’s OK.
43 min: The game bursts into life with a textbook Forest counter-attack! Gibbs-White starts the move with a slick turn and pass to Dominguez, who in turn feeds Wood. A quicker forward might have a free run on goal, but Wood protects the ball and unselfishly squares a pass to Elanga, who shoots fiercely with his left foot, saved by Henderson! Great move, great save.
40 min: Big penalty shout for Forest! Gibbs-White whips in a peach of a cross towards Wood at the back post. Munoz steps across the big Forest striker, who goes tumbling to the turf. The referee doesn’t give it, and VAR confirms for play to continue, but that was right on the line, for me. Munoz definitely has a little tug on Wood’s shirt and I don’t think that is overturned by VAR if the referee gives it on the field. Which he didn’t, as we discussed.
38 min: Attacking a corner, Palace are penalised for blocking. Not sure I have seen that, this season. Blocking seems to be fair game at the moment, so that’s a surprise.
36 min: Sangare is extremely fortunate to escape a booking after tripping Sarr on a Palace counter attack. That is very similar to the foul which earlier led to Dominguez’s yellow. Not sure why Andrew Madley has kept his card in his pocket, there.
34 min: A chance! A shot on target, the first of the game. A save! Be still, my beating heart. Palace come forward, Kamada feeding Mitchell and the left-back crosses deep for Munoz, stealing in at the back post, with the Colombian volleying from close range straight at Sels, who repels with his torso! Either side of the Forest keeper and that was 1-0.
32 min: Mateta has barely touched the ball.
30 min: Williams sends in a cross towards Dominguez, who breaks forward unnoticed from midfield, but the Argentinian miscues his header eight yards out and Palace clear up the loose ball. Could easily have dropped kindly to Wood, there.
28 min: Hudson-Odoi, wearing a plush black ensemble, is nestled in with away Forest fans tonight, and watching eagerly.
26 min: Forest fans, why is this Sangaré’s first league start since August? He’s always been very highly regarded and seems to be playing well here. Forest look the more likely to make something happen, with Elanga getting to the byline and crossing for Wood, who is well marshalled in the middle.
23 min: Gibbs-White plays a nice one-two in midfield and bursts forward into space before a Palace’s retreating midfield surrounds the Forest playmaker. There is just no space in the middle of the park.
20 min: I won’t sugar coat it. It’s not been a classic so far. Both sides are cagey. Forest will be pleased. They have narrowly won many of these away encounters in this fashion this season.
18 min: Mitchell gets very, very lucky with a header back to his goalkeeper. The Palace left-back didn’t see Henderson coming to collect the ball and nearly nodded the ball past his keeper and into his own net. Henderson showed great reflexes to stick out a boot and deflect the backpass away from danger.
16 min: Dino Zoff, Italy goalkeeping great and international manager, remember.
14 min: “Aside from Nuno Espírito Santo, there are no other ex-professional goalkeepers as managers in the Premier League currently, and only one other throughout the whole of the Football League (Andy Woodman at Barrow). emails Andy Flintoff. “Is it something to do with the position that means that they don’t go into managing? I know there are fewer goalkeepers in squads, but 2 out of 92 seems very low”.
Yep, a good observation, that. Keepers spend an awful long part of their career just watching the game, so you’d think they would be prime contenders to become managers. Julen Lopetegui was a goalkeeper, remember. The manager started this season as West Ham’s manager but is now in charge of Qatar.
10 min: Palace have scored a goal for every 14.2 corners taken this season and they come close to bettering that statistic, as Lacroix’s flick on at the near post leads to bedlam in the Forest box. Murillo misses his clearance and there is a brief pinball melee as Richards mis-kicks a shot at goal before Forest eventually get the ball away.
8 min: Forest commit men forward for a corner and Palace clear the ball and gallop up the field on a counter attack. Sarr sprints clear of Dominguez and the Argentinian blatantly pulls the Palace man to the ground. That’s a good yellow card to take, from Forest’s perspective. They were in deep trouble there if Sarr got clear.
6 min: Wharton is just a class act isn’t he. The best players always seem to have time on the ball, and the former Blackburn Rovers midfielder always looks so relaxed, like he’s just pinging a few passes around his back garden.
4 min: A slow start to the game, both sides compressing the space in midfield and snapping into challenges. No chances for either side … yet.
2 min: Williams slides in on Munoz and gets a bang on the head for his troubles. The Welshman, operating at left-back for Forest tonight, is going to be OK to continue.
Peeeeeeep!
And we’re off at Selhurst Park!
Nuno was quizzed just now on the absence of Callum Hudson-Odoi. It sounds like the Forest winger might possibly be out for the season, certainly the next two games.
He has a hamstring problem, he’s going to be out, we’re not sure how long, but not for this game and the next.
The Mateta head accessories – the protective gear and Victorian-style moustache – are absolutely iconic. The Palace striker has certainly confirmed his status as a Barclaysman, if he hadn’t done that already with the tucked-in shirt.
“Crystal Palace v Forest sounds like something out of The Chronicles of Narnia”, emails Peter Oh. “Even the managers’ names give off sorcerer vibes. Glasner and Espírito Santo”.
In case you missed this. One of the week’s best stories.
Eze is a relative newcomer to chess, having been taught the game by his former Palace teammate Michael Olise. He said in 2023 that Olise, now at Bayern Munich, had introduced him and his brother to the game at the club’s training ground. “That’s when I started studying it, watching YouTube videos of the best chess openings, things like that. We’re always playing something at the training ground.”
All three of Forest’s remaining games after this one are winnable – Leicester (h), West Ham (a), Chelsea (h) – certainly not the easiest but not bad either. Let’s compare them to the other four contenders for the top five.
Manchester City
Southampton (a)
Bournemouth (h)
Fulham (a)
That’s not bad at all. You would expect City to take at least seven points from those three.
Newcastle
Chelsea (h)
Arsenal (a)
Everton (h)
Tricky. A lot rests on their next result, at home to Chelsea.
Chelsea
Newcastle (a)
Manchester United (h)
Nottingham Forest (a)
That is dastardly but not impossible.
Aston Villa
Bournemouth (a)
Tottenham (h)
Manchester United (a)
Another tough set of fixtures. Given they are seventh with a poor relative goal difference, I’d say that will be an uphill battle.
Palace are unchanged from the XI that beat Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final. Hardly a shock call from Glasner, Palace were absolutely brilliant at Wembley.
Forest make two changes from the team that lost at home to Brentford, with Nicolas Dominguez and Ibrahim Sangare replacing the injured Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ryan Yates.
The teams!
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): Henderson, Richards, Lacroix, Guehi, Munoz, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell, Sarr, Eze, Mateta.
Subs: Devenny, Chilwell, Esse, Hughes, Clyne, Franca, Nketiah, Lerma, Matthews.
Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Sangare, Dominguez, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Anderson, Wood.
Subs: Carlos Miguel, Morato, Awoniyi, Toffolo, Jota Silva, Yates, Sosa, Danilo, Boly.
Preamble
Who would you rather be? Crystal Palace, marooned in mid-table but with an FA Cup final to come (victory in which would secure Europa League qualification) or Nottingham Forest, out of the FA Cup but still with a very good chance of qualifying for the Champions League?
I say very good and not excellent because Forest have been on something of a stinker of late, just one win and three losses in their last four league games, which isn’t really Champions League form, chaps. That said, they are very much still in it. Four points behind third-placed Manchester City, just three points behind both fourth-placed Newcastle and fifth-placed Chelsea. This game, away at Palace, is their game in hand. It is absolutely vital that they win tonight, not only to put points back on the board, but also change the momentum which has recently seen them hurtle out of the top five.
Palace and Forest have both had excellent seasons by their previously middling expectations and this is a fine time to be a fan of either club. Let’s hope for a good game.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
