The teams are out. Fulham wearing snow-white shirts, Forest bedecked in Santa-style red third-choice navy blue. Well there goes that festive riff. Ho ho no. Meanwhile here’s some pre-match pessimism from Richard Hirst: “I wondered how Fulham would manage to replace our three Nigerian absentees and now I know: we can’t. I don’t think the Forest defence will be worrying too much, given our lack of creativity and scoring power. Harry Wilson has a lot to do.” We’ll be off in a minute.

Fulham manager Marco Silva talks to Sky Sports. “The team reacted well [against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup] … a tough place to go … we were very competitive again … we fought until the last minutes … a better first half than the second … it was tough to take the result … but there were positives … our identity … some good individual performances … we just want to be more consistent throughout the game.”

A win tonight would be huge for both teams. Neither Fulham nor Forest are in trouble at the moment … but they’re trouble-adjacent, and three points would make their Christmas morning eggnog taste that much sweeter. Victory tonight springs Fulham feasibly as high as 11th, though they’d need to give Forest a four-goal battering to get there. But any victory would take them above Spurs, while a two-goal win sees them leapfrog Brentford as well, and that would surely be more than satisfactory in warming their capital cockles. Meanwhile Forest can only get as high as 15th with a win, but that’d put them ahead of Fulham, and more importantly eight points clear of the relegation zone.

Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche speaks to Sky Sports. “Doug [Luiz] has certainly got Premier League experience … a very good footballer … on the verge of being fully match fit … Mats [Sels] has only had four days training … a bad finger … a groin … we’ve had to be careful with that … but John [Victor] has earned the right for this one with two very strong performances … [the 3-0 win over Spurs] was certainly the most consistent performance [this season] … we want the players to keep building and delivering at that level … we know we’re going to have to be strong tonight.”

Fulham make one change from the starting XI selected for last Wednesday’s 2-1 League Cup defeat at Newcastle. Bernd Leno comes back into the team, with cup keeper Benjamin Lecomte dropping to the bench. Calvin Bassey, Samuel Chukwueze and Alex Iwobi are all on Afcon duty with Nigeria.

Forest make one change to their starting team after the 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur eight days ago. Douglas Luiz replaces Ibrahim Sangaré, who is off to Afcon with Côte d’Ivoire.