Forest hand Manchester City third straight league defeat

Nottingham Forest beat Manchester City 3-1 at the City Ground on Saturday, extending the visitors’ losing run in the Premier League to three matches and leaving them six points behind Arsenal after 10 games.

Jair Cunha opened the scoring in the sixth minute after Josko Gvardiol gave the ball away. Former City striker Liam Delap scored twice for Forest, while Rayan Cherki’s goal gave City a chance to respond. City had also lost to Aston Villa and Brighton in the preceding two league games.

City manager Enzo Maresca said his side had not matched Forest’s intensity or won enough duels and second balls in the first half. He said they tried to respond at 2-0 down, but conceded again during a transition. Asked about the team’s lack of intensity, he said he needed to analyse it, while insisting there was “no panic”.

Maresca said Gvardiol and Marc Guehi were taken off at half-time because of injuries. Matheus Nunes moved to right-back, Abdukodir Khusanov shifted into central defence and Nico O’Reilly played on the left.

The loss was City’s first sequence of three consecutive Premier League defeats since they lost four in a row in November and December 2024. They also became the second side in English top-flight history to win their first seven league games of a season and then lose the next three, after Sheffield Wednesday in 1904-05.

It was City’s first league defeat by at least two goals against a team that started the day in the relegation zone since they lost 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers in November 2008.

Arsenal beat Hull earlier on Saturday and kept a clean sheet. Brighton could move into second place and close to within five points of Arsenal if they beat Brentford on Sunday. That match was still to be played as City entered the international break.

Only two teams have recovered from a deficit as large as City’s at this stage of a season to win the Premier League title: Manchester United in 2002-03 and City themselves in 2013-14, under Manuel Pellegrini. If Brighton fail to beat Brentford, Arsenal would be just the fourth team in the competition’s history to hold a six-point lead after 10 games.

Former Forest winger Steve Stone said City’s defensive line had looked disjointed and exposed when Forest won the ball and attacked quickly. He said Forest had repeatedly played through City, and criticised the positioning of the full-backs. Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy described City’s performance as poor in mentality and said questions would be asked about how Maresca could get the team back on track.

City’s season is also shadowed by an ongoing appeal. The club has appealed after being found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules. The process is continuing and potential sanctions have not been determined. Any possible punishment might not affect this season, but City’s title prospects have narrowed after each league defeat.

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