The Premier League may have a big six that pushes the brand, sells the tickets, wins the European trophies and draws in the most global attention, but real followers of the league will know that the matchday Brentford vs Nottingham Forest match is the real draw for the 2024/25 season.

Since both teams returned to the Premier League, they have delivered banger after banger. From intense relation battles that end in safety in the most dramatic fashions, to disturbing the peace of the traditional big sides and to putting in masterful performances against the long-time mid-table teams, both the Bees and the Tricky Trees have made many a fan excited about what is to come.

At some point, Brentford’s manager Thomas Frank was seen as a successor to managers like Pep Guardiola and Erik ten Hag (now sacked and replaced by Ruben Amorim). Forest have changed managers twice since their return, but owner Evangelos Marinakis has steered the ship in such a direction that every market foray has brought them quality that all the managers have been able to shake up the Premier League with. Now, we are witnessing the culmination of both teams’ efforts because no fan can confidently go against the prediction that one or both of these teams will play in European competitions next season.

Brentford’s season has been especially brilliant when you consider the fact that they lost Ivan Toney to Saudi Arabia. Their talismanic striker had been the major source of their goals since their return to the Premier League and finding a replacement was not going to be easy. They found one in Igor Thiago, who would go on to suffer an injury, leaving them with that same striker hole to fill. Up steps Bryan Mbeumo, backed by Yoanne Wissa, to fill those shoes from the wings, so much so that both men are being compared to brilliant wingers like Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané at the peak of Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool side from a few seasons ago.

Forest have their own phenomenon this season. Chris Wood came in and displaced Taiwo Awoniyi, whose injuries have halted his momentum. The New Zealander is currently the Premier League’s most lethal striker behind Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and is almost guaranteed to score a goal every time Nottingham Forest take to the pitch.

In their last four Premier League games (because Forest only returned to the top flight in 2022/23), both teams have one win each and two draws. If you extend that to their last ten games to capture their time in the EFL Championship (England football’s second division), Nottingham Forest have a slight upper hand with four wins to Brentford’s three, with three draws between them. Their last match was in January 2024 during the 2023/24 Premier League season and it ended in a 3-2 win—a close call for the Bees.

This shows how close both teams have been for years in terms of quality and now that said quality has improved and even increased, it is safe to say that we have another banger to witness!

Read on for matchday tickets information, team news, predicted XIs and the final scoreline prediction.

Match tickets

The Brentford Community Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as the Gtech Community Stadium, will host this game between two of the Premier League’s most exciting mid-table teams (even though it may be fallacious to call either Brentford or Nottingham Forest a mid-table team at the moment).

Both teams are in exciting form at the moment as stated in the preview section of this article. This has drawn a lot of neutrals to their matches alongside fans who are now willing to buy Brentford vs Nottingham Forest tickets, more than ever, to be at the stadiums whenever either team is playing a game of football. 

Brentford tickets are hot as a result, which means that fans who want seats at the Brentford Community Stadium will have to enter their information early in any of the clubs’ websites or official channels so that they can be entered into the tickets ballot.

The Premier League will also have tickets for sale on their official channel, which tourists can take advantage of. The easiest way, however, remains ticket resale platforms where fans buy directly from other fans who have spare tickets to exchange for cash. This method of securing seats eliminates a lot of the time spent on waitlists and in registration on either club’s platforms.

The match will be played on Saturday 21 December 2024 at 3 PM, UK time.

Team news

The hosts are without right-back Aaron Hickey until April 2025 and Josh Dasilva until March 2025. Both players were important for them in 2023/24 but have now been forced to watch Frank do without them from the sidelines. Outside these two long-term injuries, the Danish tactician will carefully monitor the situations of Rico Henry, Gustavo Nunes and Kristoffer Ajer, who are expected back in training before the “Holy Spirit”, Nuno Espirito Santo comes around with his Tricky Trees.

The Portuguese manager, meanwhile, has to worry about Taiwo Awoniyi, Andrew Omobamidele, Danilo and Ibrahim Sangaré. All are training after their various spells on the sidelines but their match fitness may not be up to the level required to tackle the threat of Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium, which we expect to be packed to the brim. This also means that injury prone players like Ola Aina and card magnets like Morgan Gibbs-White will be top of his mind, as he works out his tactics to take down Frank away from home.

Line-ups

Here is how we expect the teams to line up for this Boxing Day curtain raiser.

Brentford: Flekken; van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter; Jensen, Nørgaard, Janelt; Mbeumo, Wissa, Damsgaard.

Nottingham Forest: Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Anderson, Yates; Silva, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood.

Prediction

Their last clash ended 3-2 in favour of Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. The Bees had Ivan Toney (playing in his first match after an eight-month betting-related ban) in that match, and he was the catalyst behind their comeback win. No Toney this time around, but Mbeumo and Wissa. This gives Forest something different to think about as they travel to London. The game will be as entertaining as their January clash was and we predict it to have as many fouls and cards as there will be goals. Also, the result will be close like most of their matches in the recent past.

Brentford 3 – 2 Nottingham Forest