Can The Toffees Disrupt Forest's European Dreams?

Everton travel to the City Ground to face a thriving Nottingham Forest side, and with the Toffees edging closer to mathematical safety from the drop, the pressure is on Nuno Espírito Santo and his squad.

This season, Forest have exceeded everyone’s expectations, almost like they are heading back to their glory days in the late 1970s, winning 2 UEFA trophies in consecutive seasons. Although they may be far away from returning to their historic glory, there seems to be a foundation in the club, with them currently sitting in 3rd place, in the hot seat for potential qualification to the UEFA Champions League for the first time since the 1980/81 season. 57 points on the board, 7 games left with Leicester, Spurs and the Toffees yet to play; a dream may become reality for Forest fans. The strive for success has happened to a couple of the old-school clubs now; both Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are making a push towards the top end of the Premier League table, with Everton’s turn yet to come.

Since 1995, Everton are yet to win a major trophy; the last time the club got close to Champions League qualification was in 2005/06, where, after finishing fourth in the Premier League campaign, the Blues finished third in the Champions League qualifying rounds. Unfortunately, over two legs Villarreal beat Everton 4-2 on aggregate, knocking the Toffees hopes of playing European football that time round. However, the School of Science may be edging closer to a return come next season, with David Moyes in charge commonly stating that the sheer quality of a selection of the first team men players are not up to standard for such a huge club. With new owners and a new stadium, there will be a massive transition in the club and the staff and players too. Hopefully the factors can entice some top-agenda stars to play for Everton come next season.

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Everton Players Out of Contract This Summer:

Orel Mangala

Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Jesper Lindstrøm

Jack Harrison

Carlos Alcaraz

Armando Broja

Abdoulaye Doucouré

Michael Keane

Idrissa Gueye

João Virgínia

Ashley Young

Séamus Coleman

Asmir Begovic

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Last time out at the City Ground, December 2023/24, Everton were bottom of the Premier League table, and a win would have brought them to within two points of safety. In the second half, a lobbed cross from Jack Harrison fell into the feet of Dwight McNeil, who struck his infamous “paintbrush” style strike into the opposite right-hand corner of the net past Greek goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos, giving Everton the lead. The Toffees had something to dig deep for now, but surprisingly, with Forest hitting the post as an exception, Forest didn’t test England international and Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford as much as anticipated, especially at the latter stage of the match. This game not only proved to begin an amazing run of form for Everton, winning three consecutive Premier League fixtures after that, but also shows how far Forest have come since then, as at the time they sat 15th in the table.

Therefore, it is safe to say that Nottingham Forest’s run of form this season has surprised everyone. Although it seems the players are attempting to keep calm and collected, especially in the media. Back in February, Forest were 3rd too, showing their consistency all season, showing this journey hasn’t been a fluke, and with Ryan Yates explaining, “We went on a really good run at the start of the season, picked up a lot of points early; that's obviously really big coming off the back of just staying up in consecutive seasons. There wasn't one moment, but I feel like the momentum grew, and the confidence grew with it." The Forest captain keeping his composure earlier on in the season may prove to be worthwhile, as with the short amount of games left, the season will soon be over.

However, Nuno Espírito Santo has confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Chris Wood, Taiwo Awoniyi and Anthony Elanga are being assessed prior to the fixture to confirm whether or not they are match fit to welcome Everton to their own home turf, but Alex Mereno is available. On the other hand, David Moyes has confirmed that Vitalii Mykolenko may possibly feature and Jesper Lindstrom will not play, with the Danish international has undergone surgery for a groin issue. Calvert-Lewin isn’t expected to return until May.

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Premier League Matchweek 32:

Saturday 12th April:

Man City 12:30 Crystal Palace

Brighton 15:00 Leicester City

Nottingham Forest 15:00 Everton

Southampton 15:00 Aston Villa

Arsenal 17:30 Brentford

Sunday 13th April:

Chelsea 14:00 Ipswich Town

Liverpool 14:00 West Ham United

Wolves 14:00 Tottenham

Newcastle 16:30 Manchester United

Monday 14th April:

Bournemouth 20:00 Fulham

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Thank you for reading my pre-match article!