Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest

Manchester City’s lackluster Premier League campaign continues at the Etihad Stadium against early surprise package Nottingham Forest. 

There’s no longer any doubt – it’s a full-blown crisis at the Etihad, most recently highlighted by a dismal 2-0 derby loss to Liverpool. After overseeing a seven-match winless run (D1, L6) for the first time during his illustrious managerial career, Pep Guardiola returns home, aiming to erase the memory of a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Tottenham in his last Premier League home outing. That disastrous result halted Manchester City’s historic 52-game unbeaten streak at the Etihad and marked their only scoring blank at this venue in 2024/25. Already a whopping 11 points adrift of table-topping Liverpool and stranded outside the top four, the perennial Premier League champions seek a way back to the win column against a Nottingham Forest side they’ve defeated ‘to nil’ in their last two top-flight H2Hs on home turf. 

In the meantime, Nottingham Forest bounced back from back-to-back multi-margin defeats to Arsenal and Newcastle United with a narrow 1-0 home win against newcomers Ipswich Town last weekend, keeping them within a single-point distance of fourth-placed Brighton. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had reigned supreme in their first five Premier League away games this season (W3, D2) before being routed 3-0 by Arsenal on their last top-flight travel. Despite their impressive form on the road, the Tricky Trees have struggled in the final third, netting under 1.5 goals in four of those six matches. Outperforming the underdog status has been one of Forest’s standout traits, with the visitors suffering just one defeat in five top-flight fixtures they started as outsiders this term (W2, D2).