Manchester City desperately need to get their campaign back on track with a win when they take on Nottingham Forest at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night.
It’s been a disastrous few weeks for the Cityzens and a winless run of seven games in all competitions has threatened to derail their season before Christmas. After being knocked out of the EFL Cup by Tottenham at the end of October, City then lost away to Bournemouth in the league before being hammered 4-1 away to Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.
Another 2-1 loss on the road to Brighton was followed by a humiliating 4-0 home defeat to Tottenham. Man City then blew a 3-0 lead against Feyenoord to draw 3-3 with the Dutch outfit scoring three times in the last 12 minutes to leave City sitting 17th in the Champions League table.
Guardiola’s men had the perfect opportunity to get their campaign back on track and drag themselves back into title contention when they met Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday. However, they were outclassed on Merseyside with the Reds running out deserved 2-0 winners to leave Man City sitting fifth in the PL table – 11 points behind leaders Liverpool.
It’s going to take a miracle for Man City to get back in the title race but for now Guardiola’s main concern will be to stop the rot and get back to winning ways when Forest head to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night.
However, that’s not going to be an easy task as Forest come into the game sitting just one place and one point behind City in the table following an excellent start to the season. Saturday’s 1-0 win over Ipswich moved Forest on to 22 points from their opening 13 games and they’ll be looking to inflict more pain on Guardiola’s men in Manchester.
How to watch
Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest will be broadcast live on Amazon Prime at 7.30pm on Wednesday 4rd December.
Match going fans can also follow all the action live in person at the Etihad Stadium and GO Sport Travel have some excellent matchday ticket packages available that include hotel deals for those who want to stay over.
Team news
Man City’s issues have not been helped by a serious injury to instrumental midfielder Rodri. The Spaniard is set to miss the rest of the season with an ACL injury and obviously won’t take any part in the game against Forest.
Mateo Kovacic is also out after the Croatian was ruled out until the end of December while Oscar Bobb and John Stones are other absentees for the defending champions.
Nottingham Forest will continue to be without the services of Ibrahim Sangare as he’s still recovering from a thigh problem while Danilo is also out until the New Year with an ankle injury.
Likely Line-ups
Guardiola is expected to make some changes from the side that lost at Liverpool but Kevin de Bruyne may still not be recalled to the starting eleven as his fitness concerns continue.
Ederson could be back between the sticks after Stefan Ortega was given the nod at Anfield. Kyle Walker struggled against Liverpool and age is starting to catch up with him so Rico Lewis may drop in to right-back. Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan may continue in midfield with Savinho, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku all pushing for recalls to support Erling Haaland in attack.
For Forest, they are unlikely to tinker too much from the side that beat Ipswich at the weekend. Ola Aina will continue at right-back following an impressive campaign so far while Murillo will marshal the defence.
Morgan Gibbs-White and Callum Hudson-Odoi could once again support Chris Wood in the attack.
City XI: Ederson; Lewis, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol; Silva, Gundogan; Savinho, Grealish, Doku; Haaland
Forest XI:Â Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Moreno; Yates, Dominguez; Silva, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood
Prediction
It’s been a tough few weeks for Man City and they are low on confidence but the winless run cannot go on forever. Forest will be tough opposition but this is still a good opportunity for City to get back to winning ways on home soil.
Rodri is a huge miss for them and Kevin de Bruyne isn’t fully fit but they still have a squad packed with quality. I expect a relatively close game but feel City will do just enough to pick up a vital three points.
