Nottingham Forest v Everton: Key stats and talking points

Nottingham Forest ended 2024 by beating Everton away but they have only earned one point from the past five Premier League meetings between the sides at the City Ground. BBC Sport explores some of the talking points for Tuesday's game.

Sean Dyche has switched clubs in 2025 but otherwise ends the year the way he began it, in a relegation scrap. Dyche was sacked as Everton manager on 9 January with Everton 16th in the table and one point clear of the bottom three. He took over a Nottingham Forest side in even greater peril in late October but they currently have a five-point cushion over the dropzone.

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Nonetheless, consistency has been an issue for Forest under Dyche. They have suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time under him, albeit an industrious display against Manchester City last time out was a considerable improvement on the lacklustre showing away at Fulham before Christmas.

Chris Wood's 20 goals were vital in Forest earning European qualification last season. Without him because of persistent knee problems, no Forest player has more than three league goals this season. Winless Wolves are the only club whose top scorer has fewer.

A lack of goals is also holding back Everton. They and Forest are the joint-second lowest scorers in the division, averaging only a goal per game.

Both sides rank middle of the pack for the number of goal attempts they have had in the Premier League this season but their quality of finishing lets them down.

Everton have only converted 29% of their big chances – situations in which a player would reasonably be expected to score. It is the lowest figure in the top flight.

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Four-goal leading scorers Iliman Ndiaye and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall were both missing against Burnley, while Jack Grealish was ruled out with a virus. Their absence was keenly felt in a dire goalless draw.

It means that Everton, who moved up to fifth in the table with a 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest earlier this month, have gone three Premier League games without a goal for the first time in nearly a year.

Strikers Beto and Thierno Barry only have one league goal apiece this season, leaving manager David Moyes to concede: "That's not good enough and we need to find more goals."

It will not be lost on any Everton followers that Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who chose to leave the club in the summer after a nine-year spell, is enjoying a six-match goalscoring streak for Leeds.