Looking to score their first home Premier League goal of the season at the fifth time of asking, Nottingham Forest now welcome the highest-scoring side in the division after nine rounds, Manchester City.
Match News and Current Form
A 2-0 defeat against Brentford extended Forest’s wait for a league victory to five games (D1, L4) and left them languishing in the bottom three. Scoring goals has been their main issue this term with the Tricky Trees finding the net on a league-low six occasions, despite having the second-most shots of any Premier League side heading into the round (152). Pressure on manager Oliver Glasner will only increase if Forest become just the fourth side in English top-flight history to ever open a campaign by failing to score in their first five home league games, which looks a very real prospect given that they failed to beat any of last season’s top eight at the City Ground in 2025/26 (D4, L4), failing to score in four of those games.
Since becoming the tenth side in English top-flight history to win their first seven games of a league campaign, Manchester City have since fallen to consecutive Premier League defeats against Brighton and Aston Villa. That’s as many losses as they suffered across 33 Premier League rounds prior (W23, D8), while they’ve lost more consecutively only once across the previous decade. A midweek jaunt to Germany - in which they beat Leipzig 3-2 in the UEFA Champions League - has hit preparation time here and perhaps gets in the way as City bid to avoid losing successive Premier League away games for the first time since last November, when the first of those defeats ominously came against Villa!
Head-to-Head History
Forest have won just one of the last nine Premier League H2Hs (D3, L5), but that came at the City Ground in the 2024/25 campaign. After a victory in last term’s corresponding fixture, City could record consecutive top-flight away wins over Forest for the first time since 1925.
Hot Stats and Streaks
All four of Forest's home league games this term were 0-0 at half-time.
Forest won just one of the four league games they scored first in this season (D2, L1).
Eight of City’s nine away league goals this term arrived after half-time.
Five of City’s last six away league wins were accompanied by a clean sheet.
Key Players to Watch and Missing Players
Morgan Gibbs-White is set to make his 200th Premier League appearance here, with his 151 for Forest representing the third-most for the club in the competition - he assisted the winner in their only H2H victory since promotion. City’s Erling Haaland leads the way in the Premier League with nine goals, four of which were match openers, but he’s not been involved in a goal in the last three league H2Hs.
Neither side seemingly have any fresh injury concerns.
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Betting Analysis
Forest’s rot ending against one of the league’s best looks unlikely, so a City win to nil could provide value.
Author: Matthew Billon