Nottingham Forest defeated Manchester City 3-1 at the City Ground on Saturday, ending a home scoring drought that had stretched nearly six months. Liam Delap scored twice for the hosts, according to Sky Sports, after Jair Cunha had given Forest an early lead. The result lifts Oliver Glasner's side out of the relegation zone and leaves City six points behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
City arrived having lost their two previous league matches, but few expected Forest — who had neither scored nor won at home this season — to trouble them to this extent. Sky Sports reports that Forest's pressing and intensity unsettled the visitors throughout the first half.
Why it matters
The defeat is City's third in a row in the league, and the Telegraph notes that their form is becoming as much of a concern as the ongoing legal case hanging over the club. Sky Sports reports that Enzo Maresca's team are the first top-flight side in 122 years to win their opening seven matches and then lose the next three.
For Forest, the win carries immediate weight: it moves them out of the bottom three and offers Glasner relief after a difficult opening stretch. The BBC described the afternoon as a potential lift-off moment at the City Ground, though the manager himself was more cautious afterwards.
How the game unfolded
Forest's opener came in the sixth minute. Cunha tracked Josko Gvardiol, won the ball from him and ran through to finish with his left foot — the club's first home goal since the spring, per Sky Sports.
Twelve minutes later it was 2-0. Xaver Schlager beat former Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson to a loose ball in midfield and released Delap, who struck his second goal for the club. James McAtee, playing in an advanced role, might have added a third before City produced anything of note.
City did create chances before the break. Enzo Fernandez headed a Marc Guehi cross off target when he should have scored, and Erling Haaland rounded goalkeeper Matz Sels only for Cunha to clear his goal-bound effort. Sky Sports reports that Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis watched from the stands as his side protected a two-goal cushion.
Rayan Cherki pulled one back early in the second half with a powerful strike, and City pushed for an equaliser. Instead, Morgan Gibbs-White found Delap on a counter-attack and the forward angled his shot into the top corner to restore the two-goal margin and settle the match.
Sky Sports reports that Forest covered six kilometres more than City over the course of the game.
Glasner praises Yates and warns against overreading the result
Glasner singled out captain Ryan Yates, who made his first start of the season, for a pre-match team talk he described as the most inspiring he had heard in a career spanning more than 500 games as a player and more than 500 as a manager.
The Forest boss also joked that he had to match his players' running off the pitch, referring to his touchline celebration after the third goal.
Asked whether the win marked a turning point, Glasner declined to go that far. "We have a saying in Austria. One swallow does not make a summer," he said, adding that his side's first-half display had not met the required standard and that the second and third goals conceded by City came from similar breakdowns in transition.
Maresca confirmed that Guehi and Gvardiol were withdrawn at half-time because both asked to come off with knocks, rather than for tactical reasons, according to Sky Sports.
City's problems laid bare
The Guardian reported that Delap's goals handed City their third consecutive league defeat, and the manner of the loss will concern Maresca. Gvardiol was dispossessed for the first goal, Anderson was beaten too easily in the build-up to the second, and Guehi was similarly exposed.
Sky Sports observed that City appear to want time on the ball, and that opponents who deny them that time are finding ways to disrupt them. The early-season run of seven straight wins had suggested Maresca's transition would be smooth; the past three matches have supplied a template for unsettling his side.
For Forest, the value of the win lies as much in the performance as the points. Yates set the tone with his pressing, and the final whistle brought celebrations that Sky Sports described as reflecting both delight and relief.
City next face the task of arresting a losing run that has already cost them ground in the title race, while Forest will look to build on a result Glasner is treating as a single step rather than a transformation.
