Can Newcastle take advantage? - Chris Sutton predicts Nottingham Forest clash

Nottingham Forest host Newcastle United on Sunday in the Premier League. Kick-off is at 2pm, live on Sky Sports.

Before Thursday, this was looking like the worst possible time for Newcastle to come up against Vitor Pereira's Nottingham Forest.

The Tricky Trees were unbeaten in seven games before Aston Villa knocked the stuffing out of them in the Europa League semi-final second leg on Thursday night.

A 4-0 hammering in a cup semi-final may just have been what Newcastle needed to take the wind out of Forest's sails and give the Magpies a decent chance.

Chris Sutton made his prediction before Thursday's game

Like Paul Merson, Chris Sutton made his prediction before the Europa League tie and he put a lot of emphasis on that game being a factor on Sunday's result. 

However, the BBC pundit claimed Newcastle would still struggle even if Forest were tired, which may be a wise call given Forest had gone 10 games unbeaten prior to Thursday's 4-0 defeat at Villa Park.

"Nottingham Forest are not quite mathematically safe yet on 42 points and this weekend they play before West Ham and Tottenham do, so they will go into this game still needing something.

"Forest have come a long way under Vitor Pereira and are playing really well at the moment and scoring goals, but Morgan Gibbs-White has been key to all of that so they really need him to be available after his horrific head injury.

"My other worry with Forest is how much Thursday's Europa League semi-final with Aston Villa will take out of them - but at the same time, I am not sure Newcastle can take advantage even if they are tired.

"The Magpies' win over Brighton was much-needed for their boss, Eddie Howe, but it was far from convincing. All things considered, this will probably end up in a draw.

"Sutton's prediction: 1-1"

Would you take a draw?

We're sure that Sutton wasn't expecting Forest to get the pasting that they did, and probably didn't expect Pereira to be missing five key players for this fixture.

That being said, a 1-1 draw wouldn't be the end of the world. It would likely put an end to our European hopes once and for all, but should also squash all the relegation talk, too.

A win would be fantastic to keep our European hopes alive, but it honestly just feels like this season is going to go out with a whimper rather than a bang.