Nottingham Forest-Bournemouth Preview

Bournemouth head coach Gary O'Neil wants the Cherries to draw on their memories of facing Nottingham Forest in the Championship last term ahead of Saturday's Premier League clash.

Bournemouth sealed promotion to the top flight by beating Forest 1-0 last May, but O'Neil's men have lost eight of their last nine games to slip to 17th place, one point clear of the relegation zone.

With in-form Forest just four points above their hosts, O'Neil wants to use last season's victory over the Reds as inspiration.

"The boys will definitely have fond memories of that evening and, even for me, it brings back emotions of how hard we worked and how difficult it was," he said. "Even in that season when things were going well, it was difficult to get to this point where we are.

"Nottingham Forest are coming again, similar to last time because they were in good form the last time they came here. We have a group that are ready to go, we know how big the game is and we need a result from it."

Forest, meanwhile, appear to be on the up after following up an EFL Cup quarter-final victory against Wolves with a Premier League win over Leicester City.

Steve Cooper's side will hope the addition of striker Chris Wood helps them ensure survival, and the New Zealand international cannot wait to get going.

"Nottingham Forest is a massive club which I have come up against a number of times, but it's nice now to be able to pull on the red shirt," Wood said. "You can see the transition over the past 18 months and it's progressing in the right way.

"It's always been an amazing atmosphere at The City Ground, so I'm thankful to have that passionate fanbase on my side now and I can't wait to get playing there."

Bournemouth – Philip Billing

Bournemouth have failed to score in any of their four Premier League games since the World Cup. With several Cherries forwards sidelined, Billing – who has five league goal involvements this term – may need to step up in attacking areas.

Nottingham Forest – Morgan Gibbs-White

Gibbs-White has as many Premier League assists (four) as every other Forest player combined this season, and he could make the difference once again after assisting both of Brennan Johnson's goals in their 2-0 win against Leicester last time out.

- Bournemouth have won four of their last five league games against Nottingham Forest (D1), including their only previous top-flight meeting in September, coming from 2-0 behind to win 3-2.

- Nottingham Forest have lost five of their last six away league games against Bournemouth (W1), winning the other 2-1 in August 2014 with goals from Britt Assombalonga and Matty Fryatt.

- Between October 2014 and November 2020, the away side won just 8 per cent of the 38 Premier League meetings between two promoted sides (W3 D10 L25). Since then, the visiting team has won 69 per cent of the 13 such fixtures in the competition (W9 D2 L2).

- Having been unbeaten in their first six Premier League games under Gary O'Neil (W2 D4), Bournemouth have lost eight of their last nine, with a 3-0 win over Everton coming between two runs of four successive defeats. They have lost their last four by an aggregate score of 9-0 – they've never lost five consecutive league games without scoring before.

- Twelve of Nottingham Forest's 34 Premier League goals conceded this season have come from outside the box, both a league-high total and percentage (35 per cent). However, no side has scored fewer goals from distance than Bournemouth this term (one).

Updated January 20, 2023