Nottingham Forest welcome Manchester City on Sunday, in a game both sides will head into at full steam, as the outcome would significantly affect both ends of the table.
We preview this weekend's Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City fixture, and also predict how it will likely end.
Quick stats
Nottingham Forest have been on a torrid run in the past two months, winning just one of ten games since their 2-0 victory over West Ham on February 17.
If victories have been rare for Forest in that period, clean sheets have been even rarer; they've kept none in all competitions since the aforementioned game.
The last team to beat City in any competition in 90 minutes was Aston Villa — and that was 30 games ago.
Pep Guardiola's team are absolutely formidable at home, with their only losses in the league this season coming on the road, where they have been defeated three times already — just one shy of the total recorded last season.
Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City: match preview
It almost seems as though Forest keep stumbling from one bad result to another, the latest being a defeat away at Everton that the Garibaldi felt they simply didn't deserve.
While there is not much they could do to reverse that, there is still a lot that manager Nuno Espirito Santo would feel his team and himself are capable of with respect to turning the club's fortunes around.
Just a point clear of the relegation zone, Forest need to get as many points as they can from the remaining four games.
They took one off Sunday's opponents at home last season, and would give anything to do the same — if not better — this time around.
But this, of course, is Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, and the reigning English and European champions are in the sort of mood that sees them hardly give anything away.
Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 18 league matches, and will surely fancy their chances of keeping that run of invincibility intact against Nottingham Forest.
Pep Guardiola's troops know that every point matters in their bid to edge Arsenal — their only realistic challengers at this stage of the season, with Liverpool now in the rear-view mirror — and win an unprecedented fourth Premier League crown in a row.
So good are the attacking options available to the former Barcelona manager that, even if he decides to shuffle the deck — not that he has any reason to do so now — Forest's defence would have a lot on their hands.
Nigerian left-back Ola Aina is fit to start, and will look forward to doing battle with City's right-sided players, likely Bernardo Silva and Kyle Walker.
The fluid movement of the visitors upfront, however, means Aina would have to be on guard even when not in direct confrontation with either player.
Daunting as that seems, trust Aina — awarded the highest rating of any Forest player by Sofascore (7.1) in that loss at Goodison Park — to embrace it with relish, not dread.
Forest's attack would be led by Chris Wood, who remains Santo's best option to lead the attack, especially in the continued absence of Nigerian frontman Taiwo Awoniyi — the club's top-scorer last season — due to injury.
Nottingham Forest VS Manchester City H2H
Last 10 Games
September 2023: City 2-0 Forest
February 2023: Forest 1-1 City
August 2022: City 6-0 Forest
January 2009: City 0-3 Forest
December 1995: City 1-1 Forest
September 1995: Forest 3-0 City
May 1995: Forest 1-0 City
October 1994: City 3-3 Forest
December 1993: City 1-2 Forest
December 1993: Forest 0-0 City
*Excluding lower-tier fixtures
Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City prediction
The head-to-head clearly favours Nottingham Forest, but it stretches back to a time when Manchester City were a very different team.
And even though Santo has beaten Guardiola in three of their five Premier League meetings — the last in 2021, when the former was at the helm of Tottenham Hotspur — back the Citizens to win their first top-flight game at the City Ground since the competition's debut season, possibly by a comfortable margin.
Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City: Predicted lineups
Nottingham Forest: Sels; Williams, Omobamidele, Murillo, Aina; Danilo, Yates, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol; Rodri, Kovacic, Foden, De Bruyne, Silva; Alvarez
