Lewis McGugan believes that the Premier League relegation battle is the "most open ever" - but fears his former club Nottingham Forest could be set for an immediate return to the Championship.
Top-flight football returns on Boxing Day but the Reds will have to wait until Tuesday for their first league match back when they travel to Manchester United. Steve Cooper's side occupy the third relegation spot, having won just three of their opening 15 matches, but sit just one point off 17th-placed Everton going into the restart.
Meanwhile, rock bottom Wolves and Southampton, who lie in 19th, will be keen to get off to a positive start after the World Cup break, with both sides under new management following the appointments of Julien Lopetegui and Nathan Jones respectively. The former has taken charge of one league game - a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool - while Wolves' trip to Everton will be Lopetegui's first in the Premier League.
There are expected to be plenty of twists and turns before the end of the season, with just nine points separating Fulham in ninth and Wolves at the bottom of the division. And McGugan, who made over 200 appearances for Forest across a seven-year spell in the East Midlands, thinks it's all to play for heading into the festive period.
When asked about the relegation battle, McGugan told Mirror Football: "The Christmas period is a standpoint of how the second half of the season is going to go. If you have a good Christmas period and New Year, you find yourselves on the up coming into January, but if you have a bad one, you're on the downhill.
"I think it's the most open relegation battle ever. Forest are in the last relegation spot on 13 points but you look up to Bournemouth who are on 14th on 16. Then Fulham and Brentford are on 19 points, just three points ahead. It's very tight, the gap between ninth and the relegation zone is six points.
"It's very scrunched, very tight and no one is really set in that gap. The top six are in a different league but the rest is still wide open. The likes of West Ham, Villa and Leicester will want to push now and get away from the early relegation talk and cement at least a mid-table finish."
Forest booked their place back in the Premier League for the first time in 23 years back in May with a 1-0 win over Huddersfield at Wembley Stadium. However, the Reds haven't made the start to life back in the top flight they would've hoped for despite beating West Ham in their opening home match.
A run of five successive defeats, including losses against Bournemouth, Fulham and Leicester, put Cooper under increased pressure. But the Reds board decided to stick with the former Swansea City boss and it is a tactic that is starting to work out, with Forest unbeaten in all competitions under Cooper, having most recently beaten Blackburn 4-1 on Wednesday.
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McGugan continued: "They [Forest] started really positively, but from the Man City game, and the two defeats against Bournemouth and Fulham at home which really rocked them, it put a negative spin on the football club, the manager and the city.
"Over time, they've seemed to get themselves to a point where it's not doom and gloom. It's not ultra positive, but it's on the up rather than on the downturn. They will be looking at Everton, West Ham, Leeds and even Bournemouth to be looking to pull them back."
Despite sitting bottom heading into Christmas, McGugan has backed Lopetegui to keep Wolves in the Premier League after salvaging the four-point gap between them and Everton. However, he doesn't think Southampton will survive the drop, along with the Toffees and either one of Leeds and Forest - with the 34-year-old torn between the two.
Speaking about how important Lopetegui and Jones could be Wolves and Southampton respectively, McGugan added: "Straight away, there will always be a reaction. But the question for the likes of Wolves and Southampton: how long will that reaction be? Will it be for three or four games or will it last longer? At the end of the day, the changing room is still the same and they are the ones who have underachieved."
