Nottingham Forest awaits following our stalemate with Arsenal
Following our relatively dull draw against Arsenal on the weekend, the focus is now solely placed on progressing to the fourth-round of the Carabao Cup as we host Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
Nottingham Forest has enjoyed a mixed start to the new Championship season, they currently occupy 10th place in the table having played eight games and registered 12 points. Incidentally, they’ve yet to draw a league game this season, having won four and lost four of their fixtures. Their form isn’t particularly inspiring while considering that they’ve lost three of their previous five games. This Wednesday denotes the 92nd meeting between the two teams.
Best player: Barrie Mckay
The former Rangers star has enjoyed a remarkable start to his Nottingham Forest career following his summer transfer from the Scottish giants. Mckay was signed by former Rangers manager Mark Warburton for a fee of £500,000, and the 22-year-old has adapted to life in England seamlessly.
The Scottish international has excelled during his brief career in the Championship, scoring two and registering four assists in eight league games for the Reds. Consequently, he flaunts a striking average of an assist every two games for Forest.
One senses if we’re to prevent Forest from creating purposeful goal-scoring opportunities, we must ensure that we negate Mckay’s creative influence.
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Mark Warburton has experimented with his formation in the league, however having altered his system on numerous occasions, it seems that Warburton is finally content with the 4-2-3-1 formation. The Englishman has tinkered with the 3-1-4-2, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-1-2 and 4-1-4-1 formations before opting to settle on the 4-2-3-1 strategy.
As we can attest to, the formation can be exceedingly fruitful – it was the formation that Mourinho chose during our league triumph in the 2014/15 season. Nonetheless, despite the protection that the holding midfielders provide, Daryl Murphy could find himself isolated as the lone striker, especially if there’s lack of movement from his wide players.
You’d expect us to dominate possession and control proceedings at the heart of midfield. Thus Forest might be reliant on the physicality of Daryl Murphy to create goal-scoring opportunities.
Prediction: Chelsea to progress to the fourth-round
Do you agree? Let us know!
