Nottingham Forest vs. Man City: Preview, Predictions and Lineups

Manchester City have the opportunity to end their two-game losing run in the Premier League when facing Nottingham Forest on their travels this Saturday.

Successive setbacks at the hands of Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion emphatically extinguished the Cityzens’ perfect start to the Premier League season, allowing defending champions Arsenal to leapfrog them into first place. To avoid falling further behind their title rivals, victory at the City Ground is non-negotiable.

Wednesday’s 3–2 win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League epitomized the recent chaos which has engulfed City—both on and off the field. Defensive disorganization has often been rescued by an impressive offense, led by Premier League top scorer Erling Haaland.

Forest can only dream of being in City’s position, however, with the Oliver Glasner era yet to ignite. Currently in the relegation zone after collecting just six points from their opening nine matches, they require a miracle to claim only a second victory of the season in the final outing for both sides before the November international break. A draw would be wildly celebrated, too.

As many of the Premier League’s traditional giants have discovered over recent years, defeats to Villa and Brighton can happen. The supremely organized outfits can best anybody on their day, meaning City must put their recent defeats firmly in the rear view mirror.

The trip to Forest should prove less awkward, especially considering the dismal form of their hosts. They have been particularly disappointing at the City Ground, picking up just one point on their own patch and failing to score in any of their four league outings.

But City’s defensive troubles will provide encouragement for Forest, with the Manchester behemoths having failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their previous seven matches. In that time, they have conceded two or more on four separate occasions.

Despite 17 places separating the two sides, City appear unlikely to blow Forest away. However, they should still claim an important victory.

Head-to-head record: City have only lost this fixture once since Forest returned to the top flight in 2022, with their 1–0 defeat at the City Ground in the 2024–25 campaign an outlier. Six of the nine meetings over the past four years have been won by the eight-time Premier League champions.

Home struggles: Forest’s frustrations on their own patch extend back to last season, with the club winless in the last six league games at the City Ground. Victory over Burnley in April is the last time they were triumphant on home soil in the Premier League.

History favors City: It’s been 122 years since the last and only time an English top-flight side won their first seven matches and then proceeded to lose the next three in a row (Sheffield Wednesday in 1904–05).

Prediction: Nottingham Forest 1–2 Man City

The positive news for Glasner is that Igor Jesus has recently returned to team training following a calf injury, meaning he should be involved in some capacity at the weekend.

Nicolò Savona has also made his comeback to training following 10 months in the treatment room, but Glasner has all but confirmed his absence for City’s visit. He should be available after the international break, though.

Unfortunately for Forest, Nicolás Dominguez has suffered a recurrence of a previous muscle injury and will now be missing for up to eight weeks.

Former City academy players James McAtee and Liam Delap should both start.

Nottingham Forest predicted lineup vs. Man City (3-4-2-1): Sels; Cunha, Milenković, Murillo; Muñoz, McAtee, Schlager, Williams; Ndoye, Gibbs-White; Delap.

Antoine Semenyo remains the only absentee in Maresca’s star-studded roster, with his knee injury likely to keep him sidelined until December at the earliest.

Maresca could make three changes from the team that beat Leipzig. Joško Gvardiol should replace Nico O’Reilly at left back, Rúben Dias will come in at center back and Jérémy Doku appears very likely to replace Phil Foden.

Elliot Anderson faces an awkward return to Forest, the side he left over the summer after two incredible years in the Midlands.

Haaland has scored five times in eight appearances against Forest, including a hat trick during his first game against them, but he’s failed to find the net in any of the last four duels.

Man City predicted lineup vs. Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Guéhi, Gvardiol; Anderson, Fernández; Ndiaye, Cherki, Doku; Haaland.

Location: Nottingham, England

Stadium: City Ground

Date: Saturday, Nov. 7

Kickoff Time: 5:30 p.m. GMT / 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT

Referee: Sam Barrott

VAR: Paul Tierney

MORE: Full list of Premier League broadcasters around the world