Bournemouth vs Nottingham Forest Betting Tips & Preview

AFC Bournemouth to win

Bournemouth look the side in far better shape heading into this one, and that's the basis for backing them to win this Premier League fixture. They've strung together four straight victories in their last five outings, while Nottingham Forest have won just once in their equivalent run and come into this match having lost three of their previous five. The head-to-head picture also leans Bournemouth's way in recent times, with the Cherries winning the last two meetings outright. At odds of 2.05, there's a fair price about a team playing with genuine momentum against opponents who have found results hard to come by.

Recent Form

Bournemouth's recent form reads impressively on paper. They beat Manchester United away, then followed up with home wins over Aston Villa and Leeds United, before adding another win away at Sparta Praha. Their most recent fixture, away at Ipswich Town, is listed as unknown, but the four results before that show a team winning consistently across different opponents and settings, home and away alike.

Forest's form tells a different story. They lost away at Crystal Palace, were beaten at home by Arsenal, then drew away at Ipswich Town before losing again, this time away at Brentford. Their lone bright spot in that run came most recently, a home win over Manchester City, which suggests there's still some quality in this squad even if consistency has been lacking. Taken as a whole, though, Forest's five-game sample shows one win, one draw and three defeats, a clear step behind the form Bournemouth are showing right now.

Head-to-Head

The last five meetings between these two sides have produced a record of two wins for Bournemouth, three draws, and no wins for Forest. Bournemouth's two victories both came at home, in October 2025 and January 2025. The three draws are split across both venues, including the most recent meeting back in May 2026, which was played at Forest and ended level, as did earlier meetings in August 2024 and February 2024.

So while Forest haven't actually lost any of the last five head-to-head encounters by full defeat away from the draws column reading in their favour in terms of avoiding losses, they also haven't beaten Bournemouth once in that stretch. That's a notable pattern for a fixture that has otherwise been fairly even on the scoreline front, with draws featuring heavily.

Team News

Bournemouth have a lengthy list of absentees to contend with. Daniel Jebbison, Veljko Milosavljevic, Junior Kroupi, Juanlu Sánchez, Max Aarons and Fraser Forster are all out due to eligibility issues, all sidelined since early September. Alex Tóth is missing with a hamstring injury picked up in late October, and Julián Araujo is also out, listed with both a hamstring injury and an eligibility issue. It's a long list, though eligibility-related absences typically relate to specific competition rules rather than fitness, so the playing squad available for the Premier League may not be as thin as the sheer number of names suggests.

Forest's situation is far more straightforward. Willy Boly is the only player listed as sidelined, out with a knee injury since February. Beyond that, there are no notable absences reported for Nottingham Forest heading into this match.