Underestimate Nottingham Forest in the title race at your own risk!

Leicester’s title-winning captain Wes Morgan believes the Premier League’s elite sides should underestimate Nottingham Forest at their own peril.

A win for Forest at home to Liverpool tonight would move them within three points of the league leaders after 21 games played during an impressive season.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are unlikely to progress up the table as they are compared to East Midlands rivals Leicester, who remarkably won the Premier League despite odds of 5,000-1 at the start of the campaign.

And Morgan, the defender who lifted that title in 2015-16. and also represented Forest earlier in his playing career, he believes staying under the radar with the big forwards will play right into the hands of the Reds.

“It’s probably very similar there with Forest and Leicester. No one expects you to withstand that pressure at the top. So you’re not really taken seriously,” said Morgan, who is now back at the City Ground as a national scout for the team to recruit emerging talent.

“You go under the radar a little bit, which is great for the players because they don’t have that pressure.”

“You can do your job without that expectation. Everyone wants that headline, that headline: Can you win the league? Can you do that?

“They do better when they don’t have that pressure; when that expectation is much lower.

“So you achieve more and you can just be free in your game and what you want to do.”

Forest is currently third, behind Arsenal on goal difference and four points ahead of fourth-placed Chelsea.

They have won their last seven games, an impressive run that includes six straight wins in the Premier League before they face the leaders tonight.

COYR. pic.twitter.com/1nby1ZXrZQ

— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) January 14, 2025

Can Forest make Leicester?

If Forest fans aren’t already dreaming of winning the title, a win against Liverpool could make them start believing.

The winners of the European Cup in 1979 and 1980 have 40 points after 20 games this season, the same number as the Foxes had when they won the title incredibly.

Forest’s staunch defense and devastating counter-attacking style are both traits that Jamie Vardy, Rihad Mahrez and Co had in 2015-16, but the key difference could be the opposition the two sides faced.

In 2015-16, Claudio Ranieri’s men led from the start of the season, with Arsenal and Tottenham the biggest challengers during a poor year for Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United.

Liverpool have yet to show many flaws to suggest they will be relegated anytime soon, which could spell bad news for the Reds.

However, the team that handed Arne Slot his only defeat in the Premier League so far? Forest at Anfield in September.