Nottingham Forest-Wolverhampton Preview

Steve Cooper says Nottingham Forest have "got a lot of work to do" as they prepare to face Wolves at Molineux with both clubs fighting to remain in the Premier League after a tough start.

Forest sit 19th in the table, kept off the bottom by Leicester City, though they did end a run of five straight defeats with a home draw against Aston Villa last time out.

There has been change behind the scenes at the City Ground over the last couple of weeks, with Filippo Giraldi brought in as sporting director while George Syrianos and Andy Scott left the recruitment department.

But Cooper is concentrating solely on the football side of things.

"There has been some changes," he said. "I can't really go into the 'why', because it's a club decision and they've decided to do that.

"My focus has got to be on my job, which is coaching the team, preparing the team and managing the training ground to try to make each day a good one, so we can keep improving. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got to pick up our results. So that is really where my focus is."

Forest are facing a Wolves side on Saturday who are still without a manager after the sacking of Bruno Lage, relieved of his duties after they slipped into the relegation spots.

Wolves are just a point and a place ahead of Forest in the drop zone and have lost their last three matches, so this fixture takes on extra importance.

Wolves will be boosted, though, by the return of Ruben Neves, who was suspended for the 3-0 defeat to Chelsea last time out.

Wolves – Diego Costa

Costa has been involved in 12 goals in 16 Premier League games against promoted sides. Can he add to that impressive record by striking against Forest?

Nottingham Forest – Emmanuel Dennis

Dennis scored on his first Premier League start for Forest last time out and will be keen to build on that with another goal here.

- Wolves have lost just one of their last seven league games against Forest (won four, drawn two), though it was in their last such meeting with them in January 2018 (0-2 at Molineux).

- This is the first ever Premier League meeting between Wolves and Forest – they last met in the top-flight in March 1984, with Wolves winning 1-0 thanks to a Paul Hart own goal.

- Wolves have lost just one of their last 11 Premier League games against promoted sides (five victories, five defeats), with their matches against Fulham and Bournemouth this season both finishing goalless. Their only defeat in this run was at home to Brentford in September last season.

- Only Leicester (14) have dropped more points from winning positions than Forest (10) in the Premier League this season, with eight of those points being dropped across Forest's last four games.

- Forest have lost three of their four away Premier League games this season (drawn one), including the last two by an aggregate score of 10-0. They've only scored once on the road so far, with Brennan Johnson netting against Everton in August.

Updated October 14, 2022