Preview: Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest – prediction, team news, lineups

Currently outside the Champions League picture, let alone in the Premier League title race, the champions are bereft of confidence Manchester City When is a seven-game winning streak to be completed? Nottingham Forest Arrive at the Etihad on Wednesday evening.

Pep GuardiolaLiverpool’s troops failed to stop the Liverpool juggernaut on Sunday. lost 0-2 against the leaderswhile The Tricky Trees beat Ipswich Town 1-0 to get back to winning ways.

Game preview

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A defiant Guardiola found the energy to raise six fingers to the Liverpool crowd as the usual chants of “sacked in the morning” rang out from the Anfield stands as the City manager tried to remind the merry Merseyside squad how often he was victorious over the country.

However, six is ​​also the number of defeats Man City have suffered in their last seven games, following Sunday’s unsuccessful stopover at Anfield, where there were goals on either side of half-time Cody Gakpo And Mohamed Salah driven Arne Slot‘s machine to a well-deserved victory.

In fact, the struggling champions were lucky to still be in the game at half-time – Liverpool were their own worst enemy in the final third for most of the game – but the end result was still the same: City fell 11 points behind the Reds in the Premier League table.

The Citizens – who were also forced out of the top four due to their alarming breakthrough – would statistically have to pull off the biggest comeback the Premier League has ever seen if they want to score at least a fabulous five-goal like every team with a lead of six The club won the title after 13 games.

Guardiola’s troubled club is suffering after losing four Premier League games in a row for the first time since 2008, with Tottenham Hotspur humiliating the Citizens on their own field in one of them. Guardiola’s crisis club is in danger of going under in back-to-back home games in the top flight for the first time since May 2021.

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While City are in danger of suffering a fifth straight Premier League defeat in midweek, Forest halted the decline with two straight defeats and avenged defeats to Arsenal and Newcastle United when Ipswich Town visited.

It was anything but vintage Nuno Espirito Santo‘s troops, but a penalty at the start of the second half Chris Wood was all it took to prevail against the Tractor Boys, and the New Zealand star drew level with them Bryan Roy to a record 24 Premier League goals for Forest.

One Etihad goal away from an unrivaled 25, Wood heads to Manchester with only one mistake in the paint Erling Haaland With a three-goal lead in the Golden Boot race, Forest scored nine goals from 16 in their unexpectedly early push for the European places.

With a good sixth place in the table – just a point worse than Wednesday’s hosts – Forest come to the Etihad with the division’s third-best overall away record this season, with their 11 points on opposition turf only worse than Liverpool’s 16 and Chelsea’s 13 after six away games.

However, Forest have not managed to get a win against Man City since the 2008/09 FA Cup, who have three wins and a draw against the Tricky Trees since their promotion to the top flight in 2022, making them two Back-to-back 2-0 draws in the 2023-24 season.

Manchester City Premier League form:

Manchester City form (all competitions):

Nottingham Forest Premier League form:

Team news

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The only small positive thing about Sunday’s game from City’s perspective was the return of Jeremy documentary from a hamstring injury, but Rodri (ACL), Oscar Bobb (Leg), Mateo Kovacic (unspecified) and John Stones (Foot) remains out of contention for the hosts.

Doku injected some life into the Citizens’ toothless attack at Anfield and was expected to be one of the substitution options considered by Guardiola, who waited until the 79th minute to introduce him Jack Grealish And Kevin De Bruyne from the bench in Liverpool.

The City boss has hinted that he could use Grealish in a central role to solve his team’s creativity problems Ederson I will undoubtedly expect a replacement Stefan Ortega in goal after a surprise swap at the weekend.

As for the forest, Morgan Gibbs White And Anthony Elanga Both shrugged off concerns about being included in the matchday squad against Ipswich, meaning they would be out for a lengthy period Danilo (ankle) and Ibrahim Sangare (thighs) are the guests’ only fitness problems.

However, Elanga was only briefly benched after suffering a shoulder injury in Arsenal’s defeat and his substitute Jota Silva had a decisive impact when he won the penalty early in the second half, which Wood converted.

The Portuguese winger should have done enough to secure a starting role at the Etihad too, but Neco Williams – another new starter in the Ipswich win – could make way for the regular left-back Alex Moreno.

Possible Manchester City starting lineup:
Ederson; Lewis, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol; B. Silva, Gündogan; Savinho, Grealish, documentary; Haaland

Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Moreno; Yates, Dominguez; J. Silva, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood

We say: Manchester City 2-1 Nottingham Forest

No team should beat the Etihad and resign themselves to defeat during City’s unforeseen slump, and a Forest side that has excelled on the road all season – Arsenal aside – should give Guardiola’s team a run for their money provide excellent performance.

However, with the Citizens boss able to incorporate some tricky wingers and creative minds into a much-changed attack, we can finally see the champions stopping their miserable run, albeit only by a narrow margin of victory.

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