Nottingham Forest vs Brighton & Hove Albion Bet Builder Tips: City CB’s headline 7/1 shot

Nottingham Forest and Brighton & Hove Albion were both brought back down to earth last weekend as they each suffered defeats following recent unbeaten runs. The Tricky Trees were thrashed 5-0 at AFC Bournemouth last Saturday while the Seagulls suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Everton on the same day.

The two teams meet each other in the Premier League's Saturday lunchtime kick-off (12:30, TNT Sports 1) at the City Ground, and ahead of the game in the East Midlands, you can check out my Nottingham Forest vs Brighton & Hove Albion Bet Builder tips below.

Football Odds

Nottingham Forest vs Brighton & Hove Albion Odds

Nottingham Forest Over 3.5 Corners

Nottingham Forest have taken 101 corners this season, an average of 4.4 per game which rises to 4.6 p/g when only counting their home matches.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side have won at least four corners in seven of their 11 Premier League games at the City Ground this season, only failing to reach that threshold against Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Southampton.

Brighton, meanwhile, give away four corners per game, on average, rising to 5.9 away from home. The Seagulls have conceded at least four in nine of their 12 outings away from the Amex Stadium, and on their last trip to the City Ground, let up six corners to Forest.

Nikola Milenkovic (NFO) 1+ Shots

My second and third selections in this Bet Builder are closely linked to the first, as I'm backing both Forest centre-backs to record at least one shot on Saturday.

Starting with Nikola Milenkovic, the Serbian has been a revelation since his summer switch from Serie A side Fiorentina, churning out defensive masterclass after defensive masterclass.

He's also been handy in the opposition's area, scoring twice in the Premier League, and he's been consistently getting on the end of deliveries into the box, usually from corners.

The 27-year-old is averaging one shot per game in the English top flight and has mustered at least one effort in 12 of his last 15 competition outings, including three last time out against Bournemouth.

With Forest expected to win at least four corners this weekend, I'm sure Milenkovic can get his head - or any part of his body - to at least one cross into the penalty area.

Murillo (NFO) 1+ Shots

Milenkovic's defensive partner, Murillo, is also regularly trying his luck in front of goal, averaging 0.8 shots per game, and he's recorded at least one attempt in 13 of his last 16 Premier League matches.

At 6ft, Murillo is considerably shorter than the 6ft5in Milenkovic, but what the Brazilian lacks in height, he makes up for in agility and bravery.

The 22-year-old has a terrific leap on him and his only goal this season came from his head, while he's also shown a penchant for the spectacular, regularly shooting from distance and sometimes even as far away as the halfway line.

His last four efforts have been clocked from outside the penalty box and such a statistic gives me great confidence that he will get at least one shot away on Saturday, irrespective of how many corners or free-kicks Forest take.

Carlos Baleba (BHA) Carded

Lastly, I'm backing Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba to go into the referee's notebook at the City Ground.

The 21-year-old has received five yellows and one red in 20 Premier League appearances (18 starts) this season and looks nailed-on to surpass the seven cautions he was given in 2023/24.

Baleba is averaging 1.3 fouls per game in the English top flight, committing eight across his last five competition appearances and being issued with a yellow in back-to-back outings against Manchester United and Everton.

The Cameroon international could make it three games in a row with a card on Saturday and in my opinion, there's a good chance he does exactly that.

He received a yellow for a foul on Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson in the 25th minute of September's reverse fixture as the sides played out a 2-2 draw on the South Coast, where he gave away two free-kicks in total. The other offence was on Morgan Gibbs-White, who has been fouled, on average, 1.3 times per game this season, slightly less than Anderson (1.4 p/g).

Anderson was fouled twice against Bournemouth last weekend and Gibbs-White was upended five times. Both are likely to be buzzing around Baleba on Saturday and that makes the Seagulls star a leading candidate in the card markets.

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