Full time: Nottingham Forest 3-1 Man City. Liam Delap scored twice against his old club and Jair Cunha got the other as Forest beat Enzo Maresca’s side at the City Ground, City’s third Premier League defeat in a row.
Manchester City were two down inside 18 minutes. Rayan Cherki gave them hope with a superb half volley seven minutes after the break, but Delap broke away to finish a counter-attack in the 73rd minute and settle it.
City had 78 per cent of the ball and 753 passes to Forest’s 206, yet they hit the target only four times. With Arsenal beating Hull 1-0 earlier in the day, City started the evening six points behind the leaders and finished it nine adrift.
It was a big night for Oliver Glasner, who was under pressure after last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Brentford. Nottingham Forest defended deep, broke quickly and scored three times from five shots on target in front of a crowd of 30,762.
How Forest went two up inside 18 minutes
Maresca made three changes from the 3-2 win at RB Leipzig, bringing back Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Jeremy Doku, with Nico O’Reilly, Matheus Nunes and Phil Foden on the bench. Abdukodir Khusanov and Gvardiol played as full-backs either side of Dias and Marc Guehi.
It went wrong almost straight away. In the sixth minute Gvardiol took a heavy touch in his own half, had the ball taken off him, and Forest broke four against two. Cunha ran through and slid a left-footed shot under Gianluigi Donnarumma into the bottom corner.
The second goal was just as avoidable. Elliot Anderson, making his first start at the City Ground since his £116m move in the summer, hesitated in midfield and Delap nicked the ball off him. The striker ran from his own half into the City box and fired past Donnarumma, with Xaver Schlager credited with the assist.
Forest could have had a third before the break when James McAtee, another former City academy player, shot over from a good position. City’s best moments were an Enzo Fernandez header from Guehi’s cross that went over and a Haaland shot that Matz Sels saved.
Cherki’s half volley and a bright spell for City
Maresca took off both Gvardiol and Guehi at half-time, sending on O’Reilly and Nunes. He said afterwards that Guehi had asked to come off with a problem picked up in the first half. City came out with far more urgency, and in the 52nd minute they were back in it.
Doku’s cross from the left took a deflection and looped towards Cherki, who met it on the half volley with his left foot and sent it into the top corner. City’s players ran straight back to the halfway line to restart, and for 15 minutes Forest were rattled.
Haaland curled a shot just wide in the 58th minute, and Doku had a cross deflected past the post. Tempers rose too: Fernandez was lucky to escape a booking for a late challenge on Neco Williams, and Maresca argued with the fourth official after Sels took his time over a goal kick.
Is Delap the striker City let go too soon?
Forest rode out that spell. Glasner sent on Dan Ndoye and Luca Netz for McAtee and Daniel Munoz in the 65th minute, and Ryan Yates, starting his first game of the season, saw a deflected shot hit the crossbar three minutes later.
Then came the killer. With City committing bodies forward in the 73rd minute, Forest broke, Morgan Gibbs-White laid the ball off to Delap and he hit a left-footed shot in off the inside of the post. It was his second of the night, after failing to score in his previous five starts.
Foden came on for Fernandez in the 78th minute, but City did not create a clear chance after the third goal. Delap went off in the 87th minute, replaced by Igor Jesus, and Forest finished the game with four yellow cards to City’s none.
Nottingham Forest vs Man City key stats
| Stat | Nottingham Forest | Man City |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | 3 (Cunha 6′, Delap 18′, 73′) | 1 (Cherki 52′) |
| Possession | 22% | 78% |
| Shots | 11 | 12 |
| Shots on target | 5 | 4 |
| Passes | 206 | 753 |
| Corners | 3 | 7 |
| Yellow cards | 4 (McAtee, Ndoye, Netz, Igor Jesus) | 0 |
Nottingham Forest vs Man City lineups
Nottingham Forest: Sels; Cunha, Milenkovic, Murillo; Munoz (Netz 65′), Schlager, Yates (Sangare 79′), Williams; McAtee (Ndoye 65′), Gibbs-White; Delap (Igor Jesus 87′)
Man City: Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Guehi (Nunes 46′), Gvardiol (O’Reilly 46′); Anderson, Fernandez (Foden 78′); Ndiaye, Cherki, Doku; Haaland
Verdict: the same mistakes, a third defeat in a row
Forest had not scored in five home league games this season, as our Forest vs City stats preview pointed out, and City let them score three. City have now lost three Premier League games in a row for the first time since a run of four in November and December 2024, and they are only the second side in English top-flight history, after Sheffield Wednesday in 1904-05, to win their first seven league games of a season and then lose the next three. Forest barely had the ball, but they did not need it, because City kept handing it to them in dangerous areas. Both first-half goals came from City losing possession in their own half.
Anderson’s homecoming will hurt most. Maresca had called him a dream for a manager on Friday, and he was applauded by the Forest fans in the warm-up, but his hesitation led to the second goal. Gvardiol’s night lasted 45 minutes.
The front line was the other worry. Our Forest lineup preview asked whether Glasner would stick with Delap, and he repaid that faith in full. Haaland, by contrast, had a first-half shot saved and curled one wide after the break. City still had 78 per cent of the ball, and that alone is no longer winning them games.
