PREVIEW: Forest look to pile more misery on struggling Crystal Palace | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest seek to extend the four-point gap to West Ham in 18th in their encounter with Crystal Palace at the City Ground.

Still sitting just one place above the relegation zone, Forest are still very far from being out of the woods in this seasons relegation scrap, but However they have managed to keep a sizeable gap to 18th placed West Ham and sit just one point behind Leeds.

After a fantastic result in midweek over Hungarian side Feverencvaros, which confirmed their place in the Europa League round of 16 play-offs, Forest will be determined to get one over on Palace yet again after the hosts replaced them in the Europa League.

This was due to Forest objecting to the London clubs inclusion in the Europa League due to UEFA’s rules over third party ownership.

A rule that Palace were found to be violating as minority stake holder John Textor also had a share in French side Lyon, another participant in the competition.

Adding to the potential tension of the fixture are rumors of Forest are closing in on signing striker Jean Philip-Mateta, Palace’s top scorer last season

Mateta joins an increasingly long list of players who have joined manager Oliver Glasner in publicly expressing their desire to leave the club.

The Austrian boss expressed his desire to leave in the same press conference as it was announced captain Marc Guehi was sold to Manchester City.

Palace’s season has taken a nose dive in the past month, without a league win since the mid-December and may be looking nervously over their shoulder towards the bottom three.

With it being rumoured that midfield star Adam Wharton was also looking for a path out of the club in recent days, things could be going from bad to worse for Palace.

Glasner has a fair few issues to contend with, not least the suspension of England midfielder Adam Wharton after he picked up a red card against Chelsea last weekend.

Cheik Docoure is still recovering from an ACL-injury he sustained last year, Daichi Kamada has a thigh injury, and Nathaniel Clyne who has a groin injury.

After a strong performance in a 0-0 draw at home to Arsenal, followed by a 2-0 win at Brentford, Sean Dyche’s side will look to pull further away from the drop.

Forest are almost injury free heading into the tie, with only long term absentees being Chris Wood and John Victor who continue their recoveries form serious knee injuries.

Their only recent addition, Italian defender Nicolo Savona, is recovering from a slight knee injury and is expected to return in the next few weeks.