Nottinghamshire

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After running through four managers last season, Nottingham Forest will hope for the turbulence to be finally behind them.

They have turned to former Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner to bring more stability and better results, after Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vitor Pereira were all sacked at various stages of the 2025-26 campaign.

However, this opening defeat suggests there is still plenty of work ahead to reach there.

Club owner Evangelos Marinakis termed Glasner "a winner" while announcing him as the new manager in the summer.

The pressure will be on the Austrian, who won the the FA Cup, Conference League and Community Shield with the Eagles, to make immediate improvements to a side that finished 16th last campaign.

Forest lined up in Glasner's preferred back three set up on Saturday with Nikola Milenkovic, Murillo and Jair Cunha making up their backline.

Ivory Coast defender Ousmane Diomande was denied a Forest debut by Anton Stach's late winner but he will be expected to solidify Glasner's defence this season.

In midfield too, experienced Austria international Xaver Schlager featured for just the final 16 minutes with Ibrahim Sangare and James McAtee partnering to fill the hole left by Elliot Anderson, who joined Manchester City.

Forest will be expected to strengthen further before the transfer deadline passes but Glasner will know there will be little patience if results do not improve.

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Have your say on Nottingham Forest's performance

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Reaction and analysis to follow - and come back on Monday for a selection of your replies.

There are five games in the Premier League on Saturday as the opening weekend continues, and BBC Sport will bring you every moment.

• Hull City v Man Utd (12:30)

• Everton v Crystal Palace - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

• Ipswich v Sunderland - listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2

• Nottingham Forest v Leeds

• Brentford v Tottenham (17:30) - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

Kick-off times 15:00 BST unless stated.

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What a strange season Nottingham Forest had last time, going through four managers and all with differing styles.

They were 'knee-jerk Nottingham Forest' but they stayed up and got to the Europa League semi-finals.

Now? Well Oliver Glasner is in charge and they have got Chris Wood back from injury, which is great news for them - his experience and goals will be crucial.

Of course they are going to miss Elliot Anderson in midfield but holding on to Morgan Gibbs-White was a big deal, and Callum Hudson-Odoi too.

I was delighted for Leeds boss Daniel Farke that he proved people wrong by keeping them up last year.

There will be high hopes they can stay out of trouble this time after signing Harry Wilson, who was so good for Fulham, and James Trafford is an excellent buy too.

I am covering this game for BBC Radio 5 Live but it is almost impossible to predict. Glasner usually went with a 3-4-3 shape at Crystal Palace but has gone on record saying he works with what he has got, so I am not sure how they will line up for this game.

It will be very interesting to see how Forest start, and how Glasner fares. Will he still be there in September?

Sutton's prediction: 1-1

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Matthew Hobbs
BBC Sport journalist

Nottingham Forest begin Premier League life under Oliver Glasner against a Leeds United side looking to kick on after finishing in the relative comfort of 14th place last season.

BBC Sport examines some of the key themes ahead of their meeting at the City Ground.

Glasner's arrival after winning the FA Cup and Europa Conference League with Crystal Palace is something of a coup for a club that struggled in the league last season despite boasting a talented squad.

Something of a rebuild is required after the influential Elliott Anderson departed for Manchester City and while Forest more than tripled the £35m fee paid to Newcastle United in 2024, they may take some time to adapt to losing the England international.

Forest have brought in experienced Austria international Xaver Schlager as Anderson's replacement, alongside Ivory Coast defender Ousmane Diomande. In another boost, Morgan Gibbs-White appears to be staying put.

With time left in the transfer window to strengthen further, perhaps what the club needs most of all is stability in the dugout.

A merry-go-round of four managers last season was a key factor in Forest's difficult league campaign. They finished 16th after amassing 44 points having finished seventh with 65 the previous season.

The drop-off was the third biggest negative differential in any club's points tally after Liverpool and relegated Wolves.

Each of the last six permanent Forest managers has lost their first Premier League game in charge, since Dave Bassett led them to a 1-0 win away at Spurs in March 1997.

Glasner, though, may be the man to buck this trend - he's won his first league game at four of his five previous clubs.

Leeds United finished eight points clear of the bottom three in 2025-26 and their supporters may also be aiming higher this season after boss Daniel Farke's backing in the transfer market.

James Trafford has arrived for a fee which could rise to a record £45m for a British goalkeeper along with winger Harry Wilson, who scored 10 goals and provided seven assists for Fulham last season, and Bosnia-Herzegovina centre-back Tarik Muharemovic.

Farke can take much of the credit for re-establishing Leeds at the highest level after switching to a back three in December.

Based on results since the change in formation was made, Leeds would have finished seventh in the Premier League table across the remainder of last season.

The improvement in form was also influenced by striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He scored 14 league goals, his second-most in a top-flight campaign after 16 in 2020-21.

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

Nottingham Forest's 16th-place finish was disappointing after being seventh the season before, but the club can't have too many complaints as they had the 15th-best expected goal difference in what was a very turbulent campaign.

While just 11 sides scored more goals, only Wolves, Crystal Palace and Fulham had a worse shot-conversion rate than Forest.

However, it was nothing to do with their finishing but more the fact that only Burnley and Tottenham created worse chances in front of goal.

Just five sides faced more shots and only the relegated sides were more open in terms of xG, but only seven sides conceded fewer goals.

That was largely thanks to keeper Matz Sels, who was one of the best shotstoppers in the league in terms of goals prevented (3.6).

New manager Oliver Glasner will therefore hope to improve Forest's creativity around the box while tightening things up at the back.

Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town are thought to be among a number of clubs considering a move for Chelsea's English striker Liam Delap, 23. (Independent), external

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

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

In the Premier League last season, 13 of the 20 teams finished with between 40 and 60 points - the most in an English top-flight campaign since 2003-04 (also 13).

Was the Premier League so competitive in 2025-26 because the quality of the 'lesser' teams got better or the top teams got worse? It is hard to know for sure.

Given how savvy clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are, the vast amounts of money that enable even bottom-half sides to sign the best talent from abroad and the Premier League's current dominance of the Europa League and Conference League, it would seem to be the former.

However, the fact that promoted play-off winners Sunderland were able to finish above 13 teams in their first season back suggests the league was maybe not as strong as we think.

What we do know is that whether because they got worse or their opponents got better, four of the sides that finished in the top seven in 2024-25 - champions Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest - took 79 points fewer between them last season.

While Forest's decline was perhaps expected given their incredible seventh-place finish in 2024-25 and their journey to the Europa League semi-finals last season, the others were far more surprising.

Sunderland and Leeds smashed the recent run of promoted sides struggling to compete by taking 64 more points than the teams they replaced in the top flight.

As a result, this season will be a bit of an upside-down one in that Bournemouth, Brighton and Sunderland have European campaigns to navigate while Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle do not.

Will we therefore see a bounce-back to the more 'traditional' order in 2026-27 or are we truly entering a new, fiercely-competitive era of the Premier League?

Read more on the Premier League's competitiveness