Forest 3-1 Man City — Nottingham Forest produced the shock of the Premier League weekend so far, stunning Manchester City 3-1 at the City Ground on Saturday evening, with Liam Delap scoring twice against his former club. Super Eagles right-back Ola Aina was not in Forest’s starting line-up for the famous win, as the hosts tore into the champions inside the opening 20 minutes and never let go.
Forest had not scored a home goal all season before kick-off, but they needed only six minutes to end that wait — and by the 18th minute they were two goals clear of a City side that had no answer to their energy and direct running. It was a statement win for the Tricky Trees, and a third straight Premier League defeat for Enzo Maresca’s champions.
Cunha and Delap punish City errors inside 18 minutes
The tone was set in the sixth minute when Josko Gvardiol was caught in possession and Jair Cunha punished the error, driving through the middle and calmly slotting past Gianluigi Donnarumma for his first goal for the club. Forest smelled blood, and 12 minutes later Delap doubled the lead with a stunning solo effort, picking the ball up just past halfway and driving forward unchallenged before thumping his finish past the City goalkeeper.
According to Opta, it was the earliest Manchester City had trailed 2-0 in a Premier League match since November 2019, when Liverpool raced two goals clear inside 13 minutes. City were shell-shocked, and Forest — a side that had not scored at home since the start of the campaign — suddenly had the champions exactly where they wanted them.
Cherki pulls one back — then Delap kills the game
City finally stirred after the break, and Rayan Cherki halved the deficit in the 52nd minute with a fierce volley that flew past Matz Sels. For a few minutes the comeback looked on, with Erling Haaland denied by Cunha as the visitors pushed for an equaliser.
But Forest’s third goal, in the 73rd minute, was the goal of the game. Morgan Gibbs-White broke at pace and fed Delap, who smashed an emphatic finish into the top corner, in off the post, to complete his brace and restore the two-goal cushion. The City Ground erupted, and there was no way back for the champions from there. The final whistle confirmed the Forest 3-1 Man City scoreline — a result few saw coming at the start of the day.
Full coverage of the Forest 3-1 Man City game is available via NBC Sports’ live updates from the City Ground.
Aina misses out as Forest climb the table
For Nigerian fans, the one sour note was the absence of Ola Aina from the Forest starting XI. The Super Eagles defender, who has been a mainstay for club and country, watched from the sidelines as his teammates produced one of the results of the season. His omission will be noted back home, with Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Tanzania just days away — but on this evidence, Forest coped just fine without him.
The win is a huge three points in Forest’s fight to climb away from the bottom of the table, and it was built on exactly the qualities they will need all season: organisation, aggression without the ball, and ruthless finishing when the chances came.
What the result means for the title race
For Manchester City, this was a third consecutive Premier League defeat, after losses to Aston Villa and Brighton, and it leaves their title defence in serious trouble. Arsenal, who beat Hull City 1-0 earlier on Saturday through Martin Odegaard’s strike, remain six points clear at the top — and City now look a long way from the side that has dominated English football in recent years.
Read our report on Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Hull City, and see how the rest of the Super Eagles stars fared this weekend in our Nigerian players abroad weekend guide. The Nigerian action is not over yet tonight either — Umar Sadiq’s Valencia host Real Madrid at 21:00 WAT, as covered in our Sadiq vs Real Madrid preview.
For more on the qualifiers, check today’s predictions. Forest, meanwhile, will hope this famous Forest 3-1 Man City win is the launchpad for their season — and City will hope it is the bottom of theirs.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA) — Ola Aina by Dmitry Pukalik; City Ground (CC BY-SA 3.0 de) — collage by SportsBuddy.
