Nottingham Forest scored twice inside the opening 18 minutes against Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday, leaving Enzo Maresca's team chasing the game and extending their run of poor results. Brazilian defender Jair Cunha found the net in the sixth minute, and Liam Delap added a second on 18 minutes, according to Goal.com. City went into the match already dealing with back-to-back league losses.
Why it matters
The result, if it holds, would mark a third consecutive Premier League defeat for City, a sequence that has tightened the pressure on Maresca. Before kick-off, City had already lost 2-1 to Aston Villa and 0-1 to Brighton, per Goal.com. The club sits second in the table on 21 points, six behind Arsenal, who moved to 27 points after a 1-0 win over Hull City earlier on Saturday. A third straight loss would leave City with little room to close that gap in the coming weeks.
An early collapse with historical echoes
Goal.com, citing Opta, reported that the two-goal deficit inside 18 minutes was the earliest City have fallen two behind in a Premier League match since November 2019. On that occasion, against Liverpool, City were trailing by the 13th minute.
That 2019 match at Anfield followed a similar pattern. Fabinho scored in the sixth minute and Mohamed Salah doubled Liverpool's lead on 13 minutes, as Goal.com recounted. Liverpool went on to win 3-1, with Sadio Mané adding a third in the 51st minute and Bernardo Silva scoring a consolation for City on 78 minutes. Goal.com framed Saturday's early setback as a return of that particular "nightmare" for City, drawing the parallel between the two fixtures.
The comparison is notable because of who was involved in 2019. Fabinho and Salah, along with Mané, were central to Liverpool's dominance in that period, and Goal.com's report referenced "memories of bites from the Egyptian King" in describing the earlier match. Saturday's goals came from different sources: Cunha, a Brazilian centre-back, and Delap, an English forward, put Forest in control rather than a title rival.
Forest's fast start and City's response
Cunha's sixth-minute opener set the tone. Delap's goal 12 minutes later doubled the advantage and forced Maresca's side to chase the match from a difficult position. Goal.com's headline described the opening spell as an "18-minute" shock, underlining how quickly Forest turned the contest.
For Forest, the start represents a significant result against one of the league's strongest sides. For City, the concern is less about a single match than about a pattern: defeats to Villa and Brighton had already raised questions before Saturday's kick-off, and conceding twice so early added to them.
City's points total of 21 from their fixtures so far leaves them as the closest challenger to Arsenal, but the gap has widened. Arsenal's 1-0 victory over Hull City earlier in the day took them to 27 points, meaning City cannot afford many more dropped points if they are to stay in touch at the top.
What to watch
City's response in the remainder of the match, and whether Maresca's side can halt a run of three straight league defeats, will shape the early-season picture at the top of the table. Forest, meanwhile, will look to protect a lead built inside the first 20 minutes.
