English Premier
2026-05-24 - Nottingham Forest vs Bournemouth
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Sunday 24th May 2026 - Kick Off 4pm
This game is live on TV
Nottingham Forest
There will have been one or two envious eyes tuning into the Europa League Final on Wednesday and seeing Aston Villa dominate, especially as Nottingham Forest had a lead after the Semi Final First Leg against the rivals from the Midlands. It was not to be for Nottingham Forest, but Vitor Pereira has kept them in the Premier League ahead of another important summer for the club.
Keeping hold of a couple of big games is going to be difficult, but it is going to be interesting to see how Nottingham Forest recruit as they look to return to challenging for European spots in twelve months time. The Tricky Trees are 16th in the Premier League table and can only move up one place, but they have a 4-7-7 record at the City Ground and will want to give the supporters a good send off.
Nottingham Forest had won 5 in a row in all competitions and looked to be ending the season with real momentum, but that was ended in the 4-0 Europa League Semi Final Second Leg defeat at Villa Park. They have drawn with Newcastle United and lost Old Trafford in subsequent Premier League games, but the draw with The Magpies means Nottingham Forest are unbeaten in 6 at home in all competitions. In fact, the side had won 3 in a row at the City Ground before that 1-1 draw with Newcastle United earlier this month.
The likes of Murillo, Ola Aina and Dan Ndoye are doubts and Vitor Pereira has already stated he will not take risks with any players on the final day of the campaign.
Bournemouth
They may have prevented the Premier League title race going into the final day, but Bournemouth's late goal conceded against Manchester City has almost certainly ended their own hopes of finishing in the top five. European Football has been secured by Andoni Iraola as his parting gift to the club, but that may yet be in the Champions League depending on results on the final day.
Aston Villa winning the Europa League has kept hopes alive for 6th placed Bournemouth, but they need Liverpool to win and Villa to lose on the final day of the season. Even if both results occur as hoped, Bournemouth will either need to avoid defeat in the East Midlands or hope Brighton fail to beat Manchester United to make sure they finish 6th, which could then be rewarded with Champions League Football. The Cherries travel with a 6-7-5 away record in the English top flight.
Bournemouth should have beaten Manchester City with the chances they had late in that fixture on Tuesday, but they have managed to extend the unbeaten run to 17 games in the Premier League, which is a remarkable achievement. The side had won 4 of the previous 5 League fixtures before the draw in the last game at the Vitality Stadium, while Bournemouth have won 3 away League fixtures in succession.
Ryan Christie is suspended and will also miss the opening game of the Premier League season in August.
Head to Head
Two first half goals helped Bournemouth to a comfortable 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest earlier this season.
Bournemouth had won 3 in a row at the City Ground, including consecutive 2-3 wins here in the Premier League, but that run was ended in a 1-1 draw in August 2024.
Prediction
There are a couple of avenues into the Champions League as far as Bournemouth are concerned, but none are going to be easy.
Perhaps the simplest would be Liverpool losing to Brentford and Bournemouth winning here, but the late goal conceded to Manchester City on Tuesday means there is a seven goal swing needed, which looks a big ask.
Other than that, Bournemouth would need to either avoid a defeat at the City Ground or hope Brighton fail to beat Manchester United, which would mean locking up 6th place. Then they would need a Liverpool win and an Aston Villa defeat, which would see the latter finish 5th in the standings and open up Champions League Football for the team in 6th place, namely Bournemouth in that situation.
Andoni Iraola is managing the team for the final time having secured European Football and he may just be reminding his players they can only control one thing and that is their own result.
Bournemouth are unbeaten in 17 Premier League games and have won the last 3 away from home so they will certainly be travelling to the East Midlands in confident mood to secure the top six spot at the very least.
It feels like it could be a good time to face Nottingham Forest who have lost 2 of the last 3 fixtures and have little motivation, but a final home game of the season will offer some of that. Add in the fact that Nottingham Forest are unbeaten in 6 at the City Ground and had won 3 in a row before the draw with Newcastle United and respect has to be given to the home team.
They still have players like Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White who offer real quality and Chris Wood is building up his match fitness ahead of the World Cup when he should be leading the line for New Zealand.
This is not a traditional rival, but Nottingham Forest will want to offer some resistance to Bournemouth and their aspirations and it does make the home team dangerous.
However, they will have to be a lot better than what has been shown in some recent performances and stronger desire will be needed. Finishing up at home with a flourish will give them some of that, but Bournemouth look to be playing with the kind of freedom and energy that makes them very dangerous.
Goals are likely in this fixture, but the edge has to be with The Cherries doing enough to win for a third time in four Premier League trips to the City Ground.
They have had a couple of days fewer than Nottingham Forest to prepare, but that should have a major impact considering how many fewer games Bournemouth have played over the course of the season.
The home team have quality, but a couple of key players are set to miss out and that may give Bournemouth the edge to conclude the Iraola-era with one more victory.
The Statistics :
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Pick :
Nottingham Forest 1-2 Bournemouth
