Two sides in dire need of a win meet in the Premier League this weekend as Newcastle United meet Nottingham Forest.
Newcastle United currently sit 7th in the Premier League with nine wins, two draws and seven losses from eighteen games this season.
The Magpies are finding life much tougher than they did during last season's surprise top-four run as they fall further away from the Champions League places by the week.
Several factors can be attributed to their decline but they're coming into this game in a pretty wounded shape having lost five of their last six games in all competitions, the most recent of which was arguably their worst defeat of the season.
Newcastle travelled down south on Saturday afternoon to face newly promoted Luton Town and, in what was a surprise result, they fell to a 1-0 defeat to one of the league's relegation favourites who in the process registered just their second home win of the season in the league.
It's been a hard period for Eddie Howe who, amidst a tonne of big injuries, has burnt out a thin squad through (perceived) inability to rotate and it looks like he's now paying the price as the culmination of a bad run has seen them fall to defeat against a side nearly everyone thinks will get relegated.
It was anticipated that the Magpies might struggle with the added load of European football but few expected this drop-off, and they now come into this game in need of three points to remain firmly cemented in and around the European places.
Nottingham Forest currently sit 17th in the Premier League with three wins, five draws and ten losses from eighteen games.
Forest appear to be suffering from the dreaded 'second season syndrome' in the Premier League as they look more and more like a relegation favourite every week.
A poor run of form culminated in manager Steve Cooper being relieved of his duties as manager in the week with the club opting to replace him with former Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur manager Nuno Espírito Santo, a move that has very much divided opinion.
Nuno got off to a less-than-ideal start after his side were beaten 2-3 at home to Bournemouth on Saturday with the Reds losing the game in stoppage time after Dominic Solanke completely his hat-trick in the 94th minute to steal all three points.
The defeat was a crushing one for more reasons than one and even worse is that they'll feel as though the game was taken away from them by what was an egregious refereeing decision that saw a second yellow card brandished to defender Willy Boly following a perfectly clean challenge that not only could not be justified as a yellow card challenge but was not, under any interpretation of the law, even a foul.
With Forest reduced to ten men after just twenty-three minutes they were fighting an uphill battle from then on but they still managed to deliver a spirited and all-round impressive performance that saw them nearly steal a point.
Beneath the disappointment there are, then, positives to be taken from this game and if Nuno's side can deliver an equally strong performance on Boxing Day - while keeping eleven players on the pitch at all times - they've got a very good chance of coming home with a point at least.
For our Newcastle vs. Nottingham Forest prediction, we're going for a 1-1 draw.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of our previews, tips and offers for this weekend’s action.