Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City prediction, Tips & Stats

After climbing back to the top of the table in midweek, Manchester City travels to the City Ground on Saturday as they bid to keep their place at the summit of the Premier League.

The hosts go into the weekend’s 3 pm kick-off in 14th spot in the table, in what has been a good campaign so far for Steve Cooper’s side, despite a slow start. Forest now have a six-point cushion to the bottom three, with Wolves, West Ham, and Leeds filling the gap between the Nottinghamshire outfit and Everton in 17th place. Depending on Crystal Palace’s result on Saturday and with Leicester playing a day later on Sunday, a win could be enough to see Forest climb even further into 12th place.

Steve Cooper’s side have been on a good run recently, with three wins in their last five league games. The roar of the Forest faithful at the City Ground has helped see them pick up home wins against Leicester and Leeds, with a draw away to Bournemouth coming in between those. Last time out though, Forest were unable to come away from Craven Cottage with any points, after losing 2-0 to a strong Fulham side. With a fiery atmosphere in front of their home fans, Forest will be hoping they can pick up their best win yet since returning to the Premier League when the Champions are the away team.

The visitors make the trip to Nottingham after a huge win in on Wednesday night that saw them reclaim their place at the top of the table. The 3-1 win over Arsenal saw City go into 1st, albeit on goal difference and having played a game more than the Gunners. Arsenal play earlier in the day in Saturday’s early 12:30 pm kick-off, so City could be three points behind and needing a win to return to the top come 3 pm.

Pep Guardiola’s men have won their last two on the bounce, winning four of their last five league games. After losing away to Tottenham, the Citizens have bounced back with a win at home to Aston Villa, before coming out on top in the battle of the top two on Wednesday night. Goals from Kevin de Bruyne and Jack Grealish helped City to a huge win, along with a return to the scoresheet for Erling Haaland.

The Norweigan has been in incredible form this season, with 26 goals after 23 league games. The striker went on what will go down as a rare goal drought, with no goal in three games in all competitions, but the worrying news for the Forest defence is that Haaland is back among the goals ahead of their clash this weekend.

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Much has been said about the whopping THIRTY signings that Forest have made this season, but it looks a good job that they did bring in so many reinforcements, with the ever-growing long list of injuries that are racking up for the Reds.

Long-term absentees Moussa Niakhate and on-loan goalkeeper Dean Henderson remain out with thigh injuries. Giulian Biacone remains out for the season with an ACL injury, whilst Omar Richards continues his rehabilitation from a hairline fracture.

Centre-back pair Willy Boly and Scott McKenna are likely to miss out after both being forced off with hamstring issues against Fulham. Joe Worrall and new singing from Atletico Madrid, Felipe, are the likely candidates to replace them.

Striker Taiwo Awoniyi looks to be nearing a return, but the game on Saturday may come too early for him. The same applies to Jesse Lingard who has missed recent games with a knee injury.

Midfielder Ryan Yates could return after missing the last game against Fulham due to illness.

The only main injury concern for Pep Guardiola is the one of John Stones, who remains out of action after picking up a hamstring injury.

Guardiola has been experimenting with different formation tweaks in recent weeks, changing between systems with three at-the-back and more in midfield, as well as systems that have seen the likes of Bernardo Silva drop into a deeper position that resembles more of a left-back position.

That was the case in the Capital on Wednesday against Arsenal, before Guardiola decided to change it around for the second half, a change which saw City become more like their normal selves and control the game before getting the goals to grab all three points. It’ll be interesting to see if Guardiola continues to try out different formations or keeps with the same kind of line-up that controlled the second half against Arsenal in midweek.

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