Nottingham Forest have been backed to lose a tight game to Aston Villa on Monday night by BBC Sport pundit Chris Sutton.
The latest round of predictions from the former Celtic striker were published on Friday and a familiar theme is emerging.
Sutton, born in Nottingham, typically backs the Reds to lose and after five straight defeats, he’s usually right.
Forest will be hoping for an improvement tomorrow night when Aston Villa arrive on Trentside.
The Reds need to start picking up points and right now the team are staring relegation in the face.
With Steve Cooper signing a new contract this week, the City Ground will likely be rocking tomorrow night.
Sutton isn’t convinced though and he thinks that Steven Gerrard will come out on top when the two sides meet.
He told BBC Sport: “I always thought it was going to be tremendously difficult to go out and build a new team that could compete in the Premier League.
“I fancy Villa. Forest’s confidence is at a low ebb and they are far too open at the back to hold out for 90 minutes – I’m going to go for Coutinho to get the winner.”
Forest backed to lose by Sutton
The fact that the Reds will come up against Coutinho tomorrow night speaks volumes.
He cost Villa £17 million in the summer after spending the second half of last season on loan with the club.
Forest will come up against real quality this season on a weekly basis and they must find a winning formula.
The Reds have been backed to lose 1-0 by Sutton and it doesn’t appear he will predict Forest to win a game all season.
On current form, it’s hard to blame the pundit for predicting a win for the visitors tomorrow night.
Results are clearly important but Forest fans will hope to see a big improvement in performance levels against Gerrard’s team.
The Premier League has been no fun for Forest so far.
Now, however, the Reds will hope to kick-start their season and get a win in the first game since Cooper penned a new deal.
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