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Match preview
Manchester City are back on top of the Premier League, so will they remain there all the way between now and May?
On Wednesday night, the champions leapfrogged Arsenal into first place, by beating the Gunners 3-1 in North London.
Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring with a majestic lob, before Jack Grealish and Erling Braut Håland snatched the points late on.
So, Wednesday was the first time Man City had ended a day top of the Premier League since 19 August, but few see them relinquishing first place now.
Nottingham Forest meanwhile were smashed 6-0 at the Etihad back in August, but have exponentially improved since then, and are infinitely better at home.
Last weekend, Steve Cooper’s side were beaten 2-0 by Fulham at Craven Cottage, conceding early in the first half and then late in the second.
Having not been beaten at the City Ground 16 September, a streak of seven matches, the Reds kick off 14th, eight points clear of the drop zone.
Manchester City are very likely to end Forest’s unbeaten home run here.
Nottingham Forest team news
Seven minutes into the defeat at Fulham, both centre-backs, Willy Boly and Scott McKenna, suffered the same injury, straining their right groins, in the same move, so were both substituted.
So, as was the case for the remainder of that game, January signing Felipe will partner Joe Worrall at the back.
Four of Keylor Navas’ five previous meetings with Manchester City have come in Champions League semi-finals; yes it’s still weird he’s at Forest.
With Taiwo Awoniyi sidelined, Chris Wood will continue to lead the line, with in-form Morgan Gibbs-White and Brennan Johnson in support.
Having come off the bench at Craven Cottage, Jonjo Shelvey could be in line for his full-debut here.
Predicted XI (4-3-3): Navas; Aurier, Felipe, Worrall, Lodi; Mangala, Shelvey, Freuler; Gibbs-White, Johnson, Wood.
Manchester City team news
Ahead of Wednesday night’s trip to RB Leipzig in the Champions League, Pep Guardiola may be tempted to tinker with his XI, more than usual.
In the wins over Aston Villa and Arsenal, Man City haven’t really started with a left-back, deploying Bernardo Silva sort of in that space.
Here, Aymeric Laporte and Rico Lewis, who were unused substitutes on Wednesday, could return; John Stones is out injured.
Kalvin Phillips came on in the 87th minute against Arsenal, taking his tally to 21 minutes in the league this season.
Thus, he’s unlikely to be included in the XI, but Phil Foden and Julián Álvarez could be rotated in.
Predicted XI (4-4-2): Ederson; Lewis, Akanji, Laporte, Aké; Rodri, Gündoğan, Maḥrez, Foden; Álvarez, Håland.
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Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City: Head to head statistics
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