Nottinghamshire

Ella Gibbs
BBC Sport journalist

Nottingham Forest boss Oliver Glasner has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park (kick-off 14:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Glasner provided an update on the fitness of Nikola Milenkovic and Igor Jesus: "Milenkovic has a bone bruise and will miss the game, he can't train. Jesus has a muscle injury in his calf and will be out for a few weeks."

• He added: "All Internationals came back fit and healthy. Neco Williams returned well and trained with us yesterday, but did not feel well and got fever in the night. We will see how he recovers."

• On facing his former club Crystal Palace: "There are mixed emotions and I have fantastic memories of more than two years there. Great memories of the fans, of the times we had together and the wonderful staff I had met there."

• Glasner added that his time with the Eagles was "two very successful and great years of my life" and he will be giving hugs before and after the game to Palace staff. He hopes to be able to do that at Forest in a few years too.

• On the match itself, the Forest boss "expects a very tight game" and that "you know the weaknesses but it's all theory - how can we transfer that to the pitch? That's the most important part."

• On moving leaving Palace to become head coach at Forest: "I took the decision to become Nottingham Forest manager, it was never a decision between Palace and Forest. When it was time to renew my contract I decided not to for different reasons. In the summer when I thought about it, could I be Oliver Glasner there, how I want to be, managing with my strengths and qualities? And that's why I'm now here."

• Glasner said he is "not satisfied" with the points the Reds have and where they are in the table, but "complaining never helps, we have to be critical, the facts never lie. It our responsibility to take advantage from this."

• He offered his opinion on the guilty verdict, external handed to Manchester City: "I can react on the final verdict, but in general, if somebody cheats they need to get punished. If not, then not. I think we all hope for the integrity of the game and of the Premier League that the final verdict is spoken soon."

Listen to live commentary of the game on from 14:00 BST on Sunday on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Find more from Glasner on BBC Sounds here

Follow all of Friday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Just five games in, it might seem a bit early to pay much attention to the Premier League table - but it's probably more settled than you think.

If we look at the Premier League after five games last season and where teams ultimately ended up, the final table was already starting to take shape as 13 of the 20 sides finished within four places of where they sat even at this early stage (65%).

Eventual champions Arsenal were second, Sunderland were already seventh - where they finished eight months later - and two of the three sides that were relegated were already in the bottom three.

The eventual champions have been in the top two at this point in the past four campaigns, suggesting - potential punishments aside - it will be Manchester City or Arsenal that lifts the trophy.

The top end of the table overall has sometimes settled surprisingly quickly in recent years. The top eight after five games in 2024-25 finished as the top eight at the end of that season (although not in the same order), while the top six in 2019-20 and top seven in 2016-17 were also in place at this early stage.

While being top after five games has not meant much in recent seasons, being bottom certainly has.

Tottenham could well be in trouble once again as the side bottom of the Premier League after five games has been relegated in six of the past seven seasons.

Being bottom this early did not used to be such a bad omen. Between 2013-14 and 2018-19, only one of the six sides that were propping up the table after five games ended up going down - Newcastle in 2015-16 - while Crystal Palace finished as high as 11th in 2017-18.

Looking at the relegation battle more broadly, at least one of the teams in the bottom three at this stage has been relegated in the past eight seasons - so one of Tottenham, Fulham and Coventry City are very likely to be heading to the Championship in May.

The pool of contestants for this season's relegation battle may already be decided too because the three sides that ultimately went down in the past three seasons were all in the bottom six after five games, which would add Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace to the mix.

The last sides to be outside the bottom six at this point but relegated were Leeds United and Southampton in 2022-23, who were both in the top half (seventh and ninth). With their teams currently in eighth and 11th place, Hull City and Ipswich Town fans will hope that is still the case at the end of this campaign.

While the season may well have barely begun, the Premier League table is already starting to take shape.

Read the piece in full here

Newcastle United are favourites to beat Nottingham Forest to the signing of Lyon midfielder Tyler Morton. The 23-year-old is impressing in France after leaving Liverpool last year. (Football Insider), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Oliver Glasner should return to Crystal Palace on Sunday as a hero.

With the Eagles he won the FA Cup, Europa Conference League and the Community Shield to etch his name into Selhurst Park history. His final match in charge was that 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig in May.

Yet his summer move to Nottingham Forest, after opting to leave Palace at the of last season, has left his legacy tarnished in the eyes of Eagles fans.

A new modern-day rivalry means the reception he gets when Forest travel to Selhurst Park on Sunday could be mixed.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is currently suing Palace over a banner which was unfurled by home supporters at Selhurst Park last season.

That animosity grew from when Forest took Palace's spot in the Europa League for 2025-26 due to Palace breaching Uefa's multi-club ownership rules.

Of course, that inadvertently helped Glasner lift the Europa Conference League, following Palace's demotion into that competition.

Because of that success and others - leaving him as the most successful manager in Palace's history - the Austrian deserves to be lauded in south London on Sunday afternoon.

Palace owner Steve Parish has urged fans to give him a "fantastic reception" and ignore the "pantomime narratives".

He is right, Glasner left and moved on to something else, that is the nature of the game. He is not the first and will not be the last.

Of course part of football is tribal rivalry but Glasner deserves to be recognised for what he achieved, not to be painted as the villain after so much success with Palace.

Image source, Getty Images

A number of Premier League clubs want Manchester City to be hit with both "retrospective punishments" and sanctions for the future for their mass financial rule-breaking, sources have told BBC Sport.

An independent commission found City guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

City have appealed against the verdict, while the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is poised to look at the findings to see if there may be any suggestions of potential misconduct.

However, there is said to be a consensus among a group of top-flight club executives that if City's appeal is unsuccessful, the sanctions should make reparations for the period when they broke the rules, while also limiting their powers in future.

There is also a feeling from at least four Premier League boardrooms that a "one-hit" points deduction resulting in relegation to the Championship would be an insufficient punishment given the severity of City's wrongdoing.

Read more on what rival clubs want