Last season Nottingham Forest delivered what we thought was to be a big blow to the title hopes of Manchester City, this time around the sky blues managed to escape with all three points. A very tough afternoon for them to get the win and some fortunate misses by Nottingham Forest.

Follow us on X | Subscribe to our Newsletter

Nottingham Forest 0-2 Manchester City Review

PREMIER LEAGUE

MOTM: Kevin De Bruyne

Notable Stats:

• Pep Guardiola has the most wins in his first 300 Premier Leagues matches among any managers in the competition history with 221. Jose Mourinho (189) is second and Jurgen Klopp (188) is third. Ferguson (183) is fourth. Arsene Wenger (180) is fifth.

• Nottingham Forest are only the second team to outshoot a Pep Guardiola side both home & away in a season in his top-flight managerial career, after Real Madrid in 2009/10.

• Kevin De Bruyne has had multiple assists in 18 Premier League games, the most of any player in the competition’s history.

• Nottingham Forest created 1.27 xG in the first half against Manchester City, the most by any side in the first half of a game against Manchester City this season, in all competitions.

Main Takeaways:

Here is the Manchester City starting eleven and the average positions during the game, you’ll notice our two wingers in Grealish and Doku position further inside. Rodri would drop between the two central defenders in the buildup or he’d have Walker tuck inside once they moved into the opposition half. Bernardo Silva coming over to the left side frequently. City struggled to really put their foot on the ball in the first half and settle into controlled possession.

This is the starting eleven for Nottingham Forest and the average position of those players in the match. As mentioned with City, they struggled to control possession in the game, if they did do that then you wouldn’t see so many Forest players with an average position in the City half. Namely the difficulty City had dealing with Aina/Hudson-Odoi coming down their left side against Kyle Walker/Doku.

Whether it was down their right side with Williams getting a couple chances in the box or the left with Hudson-Odoi. Forest certainly got their chances to score in the first half and City were fortunate to not concede a goal.

👆 This above is what I meant by Walker tucking into midfield, twice in the first half Doku is tackled and loses possession just inside the opposition half. Without a midfielder also operating on that side in the first half, as Bernardo came across to the other side, City were always vulnerable there. Doku isolated without support once under pressure.

The narrow approach of Manchester City in the first 50 minutes of the game yet without a midfielder alongside Rodri made life very difficult for them (via MarkStatsBot).

Bernardo Silva made most of his touches on the left side of Manchester City in the first half, linking up with Gvardiol and Grealish but it left Doku/Walker quite exposed along with the errors those two made. Something had to change at half time otherwise City would only continue to give chances away down that side.

Not only did Kovacic come on alongside Rodri in midfield but also Bernardo Silva moved back to his standard RW role we’ve seen this season and last. In the first half Forest had created 1.56 xG compared to the second half creating 0.38.

Both of the goals by Manchester City I’ve discussed in the thread linked below. Kevin De Bruyne providing the right quality pass in the moments City needed it most. Excellent movement by Gvardiol to run onto the corner delivery and leave Murillo no chance of winning it.

Very good work by Erling Haaland to beat Murillo 1v1 and finish the goal that confirmed the result for City. That’s now goals against Forest, Luton Town and Everton where De Bruyne has put Haaland through to be 1v1 against a defender, beat him and score. We’ve missed that whilst KDB has been injured and need more of it arriving in the summer transfer window if we want to get the best out of Haaland next season.

Josko Gvardiol continued to be at the right place at the right time blocking a certain goal by Forest in the second half. Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji had good performances outside of their own box. Within it the whole defense struggled to be organised as a unit.

Manchester City certainly got fortunate in the first half against Forest and it was the individual quality that got them the two goals to win the match. Guardiola making the decisive change at half time that helped the team better control possession. One tough away fixture now out the way and City move onto the next one against Wolves at home.

Moving Forward:

City now have a week to rest, train and prepare before taking on Wolves at home. A Saturday evening game after Arsenal would have played against Bournemouth in the 12:30 lunch time kick off. A game City should be confident about winning but how it looks heading into the match on the table could be different. Bournemouth failed to win any of their opening nine games but only four teams (Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Aston Villa) have taken more than Bournemouth’s 45 points since.

According to Pep Guardiola, the injury to Ederson “Does not look good…” so we will have to wait for a confirmation this week but it’s possible he’s out for the remainder of the season. Ortega is a backup keeper City fans should be very confident in. Phil Foden was ill so you’d expect him to be ready for the game against Wolves next weekend. Yet to see a confirmation on why Ruben Dias was absent.

Interesting Moments and Links

• MarkStatsBot

• Match Highlights 

• Opta Analyst - Premier League 23/24 Stats here.

That’s all for this newsletter. If you haven’t already, subscribe to get all this Manchester City content right to your inbox.

Subscribe to Sky Blue Times

Up the Treble Winning Blues.