Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo has singled out one Chelsea player for some big praise ahead of the weekend.
Chelsea travel to Nottingham this Saturday evening to play Forest in the Premier League.
The Blues need the points as they currently sit seventh in the division table and are trying to get over the line to qualify for European football next season. Mauricio Pochettino’s side should be buoyed by the fact they won back-to-back matches at home to Tottenham and West Ham last week.
As for Forest, they’re 17th in the league table and remain threatened by relegation. The Reds may be able to secure their top-flight status for another year if results go their way this weekend, though.
Nuno wary of Chelsea star
Nuno Espirito Santo has paid respect to one of Chelsea’s top players by mentioning him in a pre-match press conference earlier today.
The Forest boss has waxed lyrical about Cole Palmer and flagged his potential threat in Saturday’s fixture.
“He’s (Palmer) a good player, he’s done a fantastic season. For Saturday we have to be switched on because he has talent and quality,” Nuno said, as quoted by Nottingham Forest’s YouTube channel.
Cole Palmer back to his best
It took Palmer a couple of games to get back up to full speed after missing last month’s defeat to Arsenal. Thankfully, he looked back on top of his game last Sunday versus West Ham.
WhoScored data gave Palmer a 9.08 match rating last time out. This included four key passes, three dribbles and one goal.
It should be an ominous sign for Forest going into Saturday.
On top of that, Palmer goes into the weekend fresh off the news he’s nominated for both the Premier League Player of the Year and the Premier League Young Player of the Year.
Watch out for familiar threat in Forest XI
Despite the fact Forest are fighting relegation, they’ve still got plenty of impressive individuals in their side. In particular, one of their chief creators will be very familiar to Chelsea supporters.
Forest winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, now aged 23, has found a real home at the City Ground this season.
He’s a Chelsea academy graduate that played 126 senior games for the Blues, but was inconsistent as a highly-rated youngster and eventually deemed not good enough to keep.
Since the start of February, Hudson-Odoi has scored six goals in 14 Premier League matches as he finds some rhythm and form. It could be a busy game for Chelsea’s right-back on Saturday, whether that’s Trevoh Chalobah, Malo Gusto or Alfie Gilchrist.