Nottingham Forest vs Brentford Prediction: Andrews off to a losing start

Nottingham Forest, recently upgraded from the Uefa Conference League to the Uefa Europa League, start their 2025/26 Premier League season on Sunday (14:00 BST, Sky Sports Premier League) against Brentford, whose new head coach, Keith Andrews, will be making his competitive Bees debut in the dugout.

Below are my Nottingham Forest vs Brentford predictions, complete with all the latest team news and match odds, ahead of this game at the City Ground.

Team News

Forest have made five summer signings so far, bringing in Brazilian pair Igor Jesus and Jair Cunha from Botafogo, and Dan Ndoye from Bologna, earlier on in the window, and more recently recruiting Angus Gunn (Norwich City) and Omari Hutchinson (Ipswich Town).

Jair is likely to begin Sunday's game on the bench, with Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic well established as the Tricky Trees' centre-back partnership, but Ndoye and Igor Jesus both started their side's last pre-season friendly against Al-Qadisiya (0-0), and could support Callum Hudson-Odoi and Chris Wood in attack this weekend.

Premier League Odds

Gunn will provide back-up to Matz Sels in goal, while Hutchinson was only announced on Saturday, and has missed the registration cut-off point for Sunday.

Nicolas Dominguez (knee) is sidelined for the hosts, who have everyone else fit and available.

Brentford will make late decisions over Kevin Schade and summer signing Caoimhin Kelleher, who both missed last Friday's 2-2 draw with Borussia Monchengladbach.

“Caoimhin and Kevin Schade are back on the grass,” said Andrews.

“Whether they will be absolutely ready, we’ll see over the next day and a half, then we’ll make that decision."

Hakon Rafn Valdimarsson will start between the sticks, should Kelleher fail to recover.

Today's Football Fixtures

Forward Yoane Wissa will not feature at the City Ground as he nears a move to Newcastle United, while Gustavo Nunes (hamstring), Vitaly Janelt (heel) and Paris Maghoma (unspecified) are all ruled out.

Two of Brentford's other new recruits, Jordan Henderson and Antoni Milambo, could be handed their Brentford debuts on Sunday.

Nottingham Forest vs Brentford Odds

Forest are yet to beat Brentford at home in the Premier League, despite having three attempts at doing so across the last three seasons. Despite that failure, the Tricky Trees are 6/5 favourites to claim all three points on Sunday, implying a 45.5% probability of success, while the Bees are 5/2, or a 28.6% chance, to kick off Andrews' reign with a victory.

The sides played out draws in their first two Premier League meetings at the City Ground, and another stalemate there can be backed at 12/5.

Wood (13/8) heads the anytime goalscorer market, with new boys Igor Jesus (15/8) and Ndoye (3/1) further down the list. Igor Thiago (12/5) is considered the visitors' most likely anytime goalscorer ahead of Schade and Fabio Carvalho (both 7/2).

Match Result & Total Goals Over/Under 3.5 - Nottingham Forest & Under 3.5 Goals @ 7/4

It's been a difficult summer for both clubs, who have each seen at least one key exit - multiple in the case of the Bees, who have lost last season's 20-goal top scorer, Bryan Mbeumo, to Manchester United, captain Christian Norgaard to Arsenal, goalkeeper Mark Flekken to Bayer Leverkusen, and, likely, 19-goal marksman Wissa to Newcastle, on top of manager Thomas Frank's departure to Tottenham Hotspur.

New boss Andrews, then, has a hell of a task on his hands this season, and it's a daunting opening-weekend trip to the City Ground, where Forest picked up 32 points from 19 Premier League games last season.

Nuno Espirito Santo saw Anthony Elanga leave for Newcastle, and he has expressed his frustrations at the lack of incomings, but Ndoye, Jair and Igor Jesus are all quality additions, and the recent signing of Hutchinson is likely to be followed by Manchester City's James McAtee soon, if reports are to be believed.

Crucially, the Tricky Trees kept hold of talisman Morgan Gibbs-White, despite the advances of Spurs.

Forest lost last season's corresponding fixture 2-0 in May, but without Mbeumo, Wissa, Norgaard and Frank, Brentford look a lot weaker on paper, and it may take Andrews a little while to get his side playing with real fluency.

Nuno's charges have struggled for goals in pre-season, with five of their seven friendlies finishing goalless, so I'm not expecting too many strikes on Sunday, but home advantage, together with extra quality and cohesion, should see the hosts to a victory.

Player to Receive a Card - Rico Henry (BRE) @ 11/2

Ndoye is likely to start on the right-hand side of Forest's attack on Sunday, and that spells trouble for Brentford left-back Rico Henry, who has only made five Premier League appearances in each of the last two seasons following horrific luck with injury.

Forest's big summer signing, brought in to replace Elanga, was fouled, on average, 3.4 times per game in Serie A last season (1.8 p/g in 2023/24), and was the cause of many cards for his direct opponents.

Henry picked up four yellow cards in his last full league campaign for the Bees in 2022/23, so there's no great history of overaggression from the 28-year-old, and barely any recent data to go on, but he's bound to be a little rusty in his first competition start in over 14 months, and Ndoye will look to take advantage of that.

This is a decent value bet, in my opinion, with Ndoye an absolute nightmare to mark.

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