Football Bet of the Day: Wood can deliver for Forest

We’ve got some Premier League action to look forward to on Monday night and that is where we have placed our focus for Monday’s Football Bet of the Day. Crystal Palace travel to Nottingham to take on Forest in a crucial game for Oliver Glasner, whose side currently sit in the bottom three. 

Read on for my Football Bet of the Day for Monday, October 21.

Chris Wood is the main man at Nottingham Forest now. He may now be 32, but in 2024 he has finally established himself as a top Premier League striker. This season he has already bagged four goals in seven games and Nuno Espirito Santo is happy to back the New Zealander to lead the line this season. 

No other Forest player has scored more than once this season, so it’s clear Wood is happy to take on the goalscoring responsibility in this side. He opened the scoring in a 1-1 draw and has looked lethal in front of goals so far this term. He’s currently exceeding his xG of 3.69 and importantly for this selection, getting a lot of shots away from goal.

In total, he’s had 12 shots in total, nine of which have been on target and although Forest have only scored seven this season and conceded six, I think they should beat a beleaguered Crystal Palace outfit. Oliver Glasner is no longer the toast of South London and instead is coming under pressure in 2024/25. 

Nottingham Forest vs Crystal Palace Odds

Palace are yet to win this season and have just three points on the board. The 3-4-3 system Glasner likes to employ simply isn’t working, with the defence unbalanced after the sale of Joachim Andersen to Fulham. He was the dominant aerial force at the heart of that defence, and it allowed the talented Marc Guehi to play on the left side of defence. 

However, Guehi has now been moved to the middle of the back line, with Nathaniel Chalobah, Jefferson Lerma or even Nathaniel Clyne playing out of position at left centre-back. It’s evidently not working this term as the Eagles have conceded 10 goals this season, and looked pretty tepid in attack, scoring just five. 

The loss of Michael Olise also hasn’t helped things in an attacking sense, as Ebere Eze takes on the creative mantle by himself. Eddie Nketiah and Ismaila Sarr haven’t quite hit the ground running after their summer arrivals and although there is clearly talent in this squad, cohesiveness is lacking. 

It makes their trip to Nottingham a really tough one and even though the hosts haven’t won any of their three home matches so far, they will fancy themselves to get up and running here. I think it makes sense to back Wood to score anytime, but this is our Football Bet of the Day, and I’m willing to push things a little further to get some value. For the New Zealander to score twice or more on Monday night we are getting odds of 14/1, which I think is exceptional value given he is the man in form. 

Up against a Palace defence that just can’t seem to get itself sorted at the moment, I think he could come up with a brace at the City Ground to sink Palace further into trouble. Glasner just can’t seem to get them sorted at the moment, and Wood can profit.

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