Forest needed six minutes to score the home goal they had gone all season without
Nottingham Forest had gone four home league matches without a goal and scored three against the side second in the table. Manchester City have now lost three league matches in a row, a run they last had in March 2016.
Jair Paula took six minutes to do what Nottingham Forest had not managed in four home league matches this season: score. Liam Delap added two more, and Forest beat Manchester City 3-1.
Nottingham Forest
- 1Chris Wood
- 2John Victor
- 3Arnaud Kalimuendo
- 4Ousmane Diomande
- 5Dan Ndoye
- 6Igor Jesus
- 7Callum Hudson-Odoi
- 8Ibrahim Sangaré
- 9Luca Netz
Manchester City
- 1Phil Foden
- 2Nico O'Reilly
- 3Gerónimo Rulli
- 4Mateo Kovacic
- 5Vitor Reis
- 6Rico Lewis
- 7Matheus Nunes
- 8Allan Elias
- 9Ayyoub Bouaddi
Leeds, Coventry and Arsenal had each won 1-0 at the City Ground, and Tottenham had left with a goalless draw. City were two down by the 18th minute, when Xaver Schlager's pass found Delap. A defence that had conceded three goals in its two previous league defeats let in two in a quarter of an hour.
Enzo Maresca changed his back line at half-time, sending on Nico O'Reilly for Josko Gvardiol and Matheus Nunes for Marc Guéhi. Rayan Cherki scored seven minutes after the restart, and for 21 minutes City had a match again.
Delap ended it on 73 minutes, from Morgan Gibbs-White's pass. He had started behind James McAtee, with Igor Jesus and Chris Wood on the bench, and it was Jesus, back from the calf injury that kept him out since September, who replaced him three minutes from time.
Forest have nine points and a second win in ten. City go into the international break with three successive league defeats, the first such run since March 2016, and six points behind Arsenal, who beat Hull 1-0 earlier in the day. Elliot Anderson, who left Forest for City in the summer, finished on the losing side at the ground he left.
