Two high-scoring teams with rather leaky defences come head-to-head on Saturday as Norwich City host Nottingham Forest at Carrow Road.
After it seemed as though Norwich were about to dispense with the services of manager Alex Neil, the Canaries have been on an excellent run with no defeats in their last four matches, putting them in 7th place and just two points off the play-off spots.
Only top-of-the-table Newcastle United have a better attacking record than Norwich this season with Neil’s men scoring an impressive 50 goals in just 30 Championship matches. However, as alluded to earlier, their back-line is a bit dodgy as we saw the other night when they conceded twice against the league’s lowest scorers – Wigan Athletic.
66% of Norwich’s points have been earned at home this season and Carrow Road is a real fortress for the Canaries at the moment with three straight Championship wins on home turf, scoring eight goals in the process.
Despite the fact that there are countless problems off the pitch at Nottingham Forest, on the pitch things are going reasonably well with three wins in their last four league matches and just one defeat in their last five, putting Forest in 15th and, more importantly, eight points clear of relegation.
Defensively there has been a marked improvement for Forest in recent times with three clean sheets in their last five matches. However, you still get the feeling they are vulnerable at the back and it is no wonder they have the second worst defensive record in the division.
Forest have been pretty dire away from the City Ground with just nine points in 15 league matches – losing 67% of those 15 games. Additionally, they have the joint-third worst defensive away record in the Championship.
With these two teams both scoring and conceding goals, we should obviously see the ball hit the back of the net a few times here – ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ has landed in 70% of Norwich’s matches this season. However, I am expecting Norwich to come out on top and on this basis ‘Norwich City to Win & Over 2.5 Goals‘ at 13/8.