Nottingham Forest have been one of the surprise packages in the Premier League this season, with Nuno Espirito Santo overseeing a brilliant start to the season.
Forest’s 1-0 win over Manchester United left them in 5th place in the Premier League, a shock even to Forest fans who couldn’t have predicted this lightning start to the campaign.
Chris Wood became Forest’s top Premier League goalscorer in the Manchester United victory, with his ten goals already this season propelling the Nottingham Forest squad up the table.
Next up for Espirito Santo’s side is the visit of Aston Villa to the City Ground, a side that sit level on points with Forest in the battle to remain in the European places.
This suggests that the game should be a close one, then, but pundit Paul Merson has made a bizarre claim about Nottingham Forest in his prediction for the Villa clash.
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur FC and Arsenal FC at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September...
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Forest ‘wouldn’t be sitting fifth’ if they drew more says Merson
Predicting this weekend’s Premier League fixtures for SportsKeeda, Merson wasn’t exactly complimentary about Forest’s remarkable start.
He said: “Forest are a team that doesn’t draw a lot of games and that has helped them in the table. In their last eight games, they have won five and lost three, imagine if they’d drawn all of those games, instead? They wouldn’t be sitting in fifth place now.”
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While he may have a point on paper, suggesting that Forest are in the position they are in due to a lack of draws rather than praising the wins that took them there is an odd call from Merson.
This point is made even more bizarre after he then discloses his prediction for the Aston Villa clash.
Merson predicts Forest draw against Aston Villa
On Villa, Merson continued, saying: “Villa are slowly turning a corner, without being at their very best.
“This is a hard game for both teams and I don’t expect many goals in it either. A win might go a long way to determining who among these two will push hard for a European berth.”
Eventually, Merson settled on a 1-1 draw for his prediction, almost making his earlier point about Forest not drawing games mute, especially given that they have drawn an equal amount of games to their opponents on Saturday.
Either way, Nuno and his Forest coaching staff will hope to continue this trend of wins over draws to continue their push for a remarkable European finish this season.
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