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Nottingham Forest beat Manchester City 3-1 at the City Ground, Liam Delap scoring twice in what reports called Forest's best performance of the season. Jair Cunha put them ahead in the 6th minute and Delap doubled the lead in the 18th, before Rayan Cherki pulled one back with a lovely strike early in the second half. Delap then settled it in the 73rd minute, and City never looked like finding a way back. In the table, City stay 2nd on 21 points, three behind Arsenal, but this is only their third defeat of the season. Forest climb to around 13th on 10 points after Matchweek 10, which is the first real sign of life from a side that started the weekend in the bottom two.
Pre-match Talking Points
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1Forest are bottom of the table. Nine games, one win, four draws, four defeats, seven points, and a goal difference of minus five. A home win over City would be the best thing to happen at the City Ground in a while; another defeat leaves them cut adrift and the whole thing starts to feel uncomfortably real. Fair to say nobody in Nottingham is treating this as a free hit.
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2City are second on 21 points, three behind Arsenal, with seven wins from nine. They have also lost twice already, which for them counts as a minor crisis. They have scored 22 goals, more than anyone near the top, so the plan is basically to outscore their problems. Drop points at the bottom club and the title race gets a lot more awkward.
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3Forest are not a pushover for City, whatever the table says. They won 1-0 against them at the City Ground in 2024/25, and City knocked them out of the FA Cup semi-final that same season. So Forest have both beaten them and been beaten by them recently. Mention it if someone says this is a foregone conclusion.
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4Player to watch is Erling Haaland. He has a ridiculous record against Forest, with a goal count in the Premier League that was already well past a goal a game last time we checked. If you want one thing to say, it's that Forest's defenders have a Saturday-evening problem the size of a Norwegian. Forest have conceded 13 in nine, so it's not an ideal matchup.
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5The hook: this is the Premier League's bottom club against the league's second-best attack, under the lights of a Saturday evening kick-off. Either City do the expected and the night is a procession, or Forest pull off the sort of upset that lands on every highlights reel. It's a one-sided fixture on paper, which is exactly why it's worth keeping half an eye on. Check the team sheets before kick-off, as late injury news is the main thing we can't call from here.
Team Talking Points
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1Forest go into the international break on a high after beating Manchester City 3-1 at the City Ground last Saturday. It was their first home league win of the season, and it lifted them out of the relegation zone to around 16th.
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2Liam Delap scored twice, and he came through City's academy, so beating his old club was extra sweet. Jair Cunha opened the scoring after six minutes. Cunha also cleared an Erling Haaland shot off the line, which is the sort of thing defenders tell their grandchildren about.
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3Before Saturday, Forest had gone almost six months without scoring a goal at home. Six months. Mention that to a Forest fan now and they'll laugh, because it no longer hurts.
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4Manager Oliver Glasner said changes were needed after the previous defeat to Brentford, and he made them. Ryan Yates got his first start of the season and was reportedly behind a rousing team talk before kick-off. An academy lad firing up the dressing room is exactly the kind of story Forest fans love.
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5The job now is to stay up. One big win doesn't fix a season, and the bottom of the table is very crowded. Still, beating the team that had won seven in a row at the start of the season does wonders for belief.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Six months without a home goal, then three against Man City. Forest really don't do things the easy way.
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Avoid saying
"Forest are a big club, they'll be fine." Two European Cups is a great history, but it scores no goals, as six goalless months at home proved. Fans know a relegation scrap when they see one, and they don't want it waved away.
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1City have pulled off a genuinely weird piece of history: they won their first seven league games, then lost the next three. According to Sky Sports, no top-flight team had done that in 122 years. Mention it and a City fan will tell you it's a blip. Their face will tell you they're not entirely sure.
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2The latest defeat was a 3-1 loss at Nottingham Forest last Saturday. Former City academy striker Liam Delap scored twice against his old club, which is football's favourite way of being cruel. City now spend the international break six points behind leaders Arsenal.
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3Enzo Maresca is the man in charge now. He was blunt after Forest, saying the first half 'was not good enough' and calling the second and third goals 'copy and paste'. When a manager starts describing goals like a computer error, the defending was probably bad.
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4There's an injury worry too. Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol, two first-choice centre-backs, both went off at half-time at Forest with knocks. Ask a City fan whether the pair will be fit after the break and you'll sound like you've been reading the medical updates.
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5Then there's the elephant in the room. At the end of September an independent commission found City guilty of 114 of the famous 115 Premier League charges over their finances. The club is appealing and nobody knows the punishment yet. Raise it carefully, or better still, let them raise it.
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Top thing to say down the pub
Seven straight wins, then three straight defeats. City have basically done a whole season's mood swings before Bonfire Night.
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Avoid saying
"Just give it to Haaland and they'll be fine." They did give it to Haaland at Forest, and his shot got cleared off the line. City's problem right now is the defending, and any fan will tell you so at length.