'The obvious result...': Chris Sutton now predicts the score as Forest take on Newcastle United

Newcastle United head to the City Ground tomorrow to take on Nottingham Forest in the 5:30pm League kick-off live on Sky Sports.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side have not won yet in 2024, however in December 2023 they absolutely battered Newcastle at St James' Park.

Chris Wood bagged a hat trick in that game but is unavailable for Forest tomorrow due to injury, but that shouldn't mean that Newcastle can relax.

Chris Sutton can't pick the teams apart

The Magpies haven't exactly been setting the world alight this season, and despite a couple of good results in January, the recent 4-4 draw with Luton was a bit of a shock.

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As Chris Sutton has said in his score prediction for the BBC, it's hard to know what Newcastle are going to do.

"I really don't know how to judge Newcastle at the moment, good or bad. They got such an impressive result away from home against Aston Villa but ended up having to fight back for a point at home to Luton a few days later.

"Eddie Howe's side are conceding a lot of goals - including when Chris Wood scored a hat-trick for Nottingham Forest against them at St James' Park a few weeks ago - and they are another team where I just don't know what we are going to get.

"Forest needed penalties to get past Bristol City in the FA Cup this week and they are still waiting for their first win of 2024. The obvious result here is a draw, so I am going to go with that.

"Sutton's prediction: 2-2"

Would we take a draw?

We can't afford another draw after the one at the weekend. Luton, Forest and then Bournemouth should have been nine points for Newcastle, but now we're staring at seven max.

It's maybe a bit too soon to write off our chances of European qualification, but a top-four spot definitely feels beyond our reach now. We thought it was bold of Eddie Howe to suggest it was still on in the first place, but then dropping two points against Luton really made it unlikely.

We'd take a draw, obviously, because one point is better than none, but really we should be coming away with all three here.