Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City Prediction: Slim City to bring the goods

Nottingham Forest will look to stop Manchester City’s title charge when they welcome them to the City Ground for the early kick-off on Saturday (12:30 GMT, TNT Sports 1). City are just two points away from leaders Arsenal having won seven in a row in all competitions. 

Below you can find my Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City predictions.

Team News

Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche said he won’t weigh the players after Christmas, unlike his Spanish counterpart, but he has urged them to be sensible. He must choose whether to bring Matz Sels back into the team in goal in place of John Victor, after he returned to the bench against Fulham.

I’d expect him to make that switch, while he will be looking for more from his attacking players after they drew a blank. Igor Jesus should keep his place up top, while Douglas Luiz replaced the Afcon-absent Ibrahim Sangare in midfield and should also keep his place. 

Pep-roulette at Christmas time? I actually think not - given the good form of his side and the players in it. Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland are all doing a wonderful job, while Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly are shining at full-back. 

Bernardo Silva, Nico Gonzalez and Gianluigi Donnarumma are each one booking away from missing the New Year’s Day trip to Sunderland, Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri are away and Rodri is still working his way back to fitness.

Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City Odds

Nottingham Forest are priced as the 9/2 underdogs to win this game, Manchester City are the 3/5 favourites and a draw is 16/5. That gives Pep Guardiola’s men an implied win probability of 63% - while over 2.5 goals is 8/13. 

BTTS is 8/11 and obviously - Haaland is the favourite to open the scoring at just 7/4. Other odds and Price Boosts can be found on the link above. 

Manchester City -1 @ 6/4

I think Manchester City are absolutely class right now. Seven wins in a row has taken them right into title contention, and it is usually this winter period in which Guardiola teams come alive. 

They’ve got the best striker in the world - Foden has decided to turn up once again and they just seem able to tear apart teams at will. I don’t think they are being spoken about enough in the title race, given all the attention is on league leaders Arsenal. Mark my words, City will be feeling very confident at this moment in time. 

Forest are 17th for a reason and although they had a great result last time out at the City Ground (3-0 vs Spurs), Guardiola’s team are on another planet right now. Should be a comfortable away win so I’ll back the away side to win by two goals or more. 

Phil Foden to score anytime @ 13/8

Obviously Haaland is probably going to score - he always does, but just 3/5 to score anytime - I’m looking elsewhere. Foden has come to the fore in recent weeks, and although he failed to find the net in the win over West Ham, he has now played 90 minutes in four of the last five. 

That’s vital for his confidence, and given he has delivered six goals in those fixtures, he is looking like the footballer that we didn’t see at any point last season. Still one of the best players in the Premier League, Foden should fancy his chances of finding the net against this Forest defence. 

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