Nottingham Forest beat Man City 3-1 at the City Ground on Saturday, 7 November, in one of the shocks of the Premier League season so far. Liam Delap scored twice against the club that raised him, Jair Cunha opened the scoring inside six minutes, and the visitors left Nottingham with a third straight league defeat and their title hopes badly dented. Forest, who had not scored a home league goal all season before kick-off, had two inside 18 minutes.
It was Forest’s first home league win of the season, and it lifted them out of the bottom three and up to 16th in the table. For City, the damage was just as stark: they will spend the international break six points behind leaders Arsenal. Rayan Cherki’s fine second-half strike was the visitors’ only consolation.
Two goals in 18 minutes stun City
The tone was set almost immediately. In the sixth minute, centre-back Jair Cunha stepped in to take the ball off Josko Gvardiol, carried it forward and rolled a left-footed finish past Gianluigi Donnarumma for his first goal for the club. It ended Forest’s run of four home Premier League games without finding the net — and it rattled a City side that had arrived expecting a routine evening.
Twelve minutes later it was 2-0. Xaver Schlager won a 50-50 challenge in midfield and released Delap, who ran from the halfway line with nobody stopping him before lashing his shot past Donnarumma. It was the earliest City had gone two goals down in a Premier League match since November 2019, and the earliest Forest had been two to the good in a home league game since May 1999.
City did respond after the break. In the 52nd minute, Jeremy Doku’s cross was deflected into the path of Rayan Cherki, who struck a half-volley high into the top corner to make it 2-1. The visitors’ hope lasted barely 20 minutes. With City pushing for an equaliser, Forest broke at pace: Morgan Gibbs-White fed Delap, who exchanged passes with the England international and curled a superb finish in off the far post in the 73rd minute. Nottingham Forest beat Man City with a counter-attacking display that was ruthless, disciplined and — given they finished with only 22 per cent of the ball — remarkably efficient.
Delap haunts the club that raised him
This was Liam Delap’s night. The 23-year-old spent ten years in Manchester City’s academy before leaving for Ipswich Town in 2019, and he joined Forest from Chelsea in the summer in a club-record move. He had scored once in his first eight games for his new club, and these were his first goals at the City Ground — two of them, against the team that shaped him as a boy. Delap’s double is the reason Nottingham Forest beat Man City on the night, and the striker celebrated his second with the composure of a man who had waited all season for a moment like this.
Delap is only the second player to score twice in a Premier League match against City after previously representing them in the competition, following Nicolas Anelka for Bolton Wanderers in December 2006. It was just his second Premier League brace, after the two he scored for Ipswich against Aston Villa in September 2024.
For his second goal, Delap set Gibbs-White free in his own half, sprinted the length of the pitch to receive the return pass, and finished with real composure. Head coach Oliver Glasner sprinted down the touchline in celebration as the ball hit the net — a release of tension after a difficult start to life in charge, with just one win from the opening nine games.
A third straight defeat for City
For Manchester City, the numbers make grim reading. This was a third consecutive Premier League defeat, following a 2-1 loss at Aston Villa and a 1-0 home defeat by Brighton. Enzo Maresca’s side have now conceded early in all three, and the defensive errors that cost them at the City Ground — Gvardiol robbed for the opener, a midfield duel lost for the second — have become a pattern rather than an aberration.
The defeat leaves City six points behind Arsenal going into the international break, and the gap will feel larger than that given the champions’ recent form. When Nottingham Forest beat Man City, they did it by letting the visitors have the ball and punishing every mistake — a template other sides will now study closely. Too often the side that has dominated English football for years looked a step slow to the second ball.
What the result means for Forest
For Forest, the win is worth far more than three points. It is their first home league victory since April, and the first time they have ever scored three goals against a side that started the day in the top two of the Premier League. The result also drops Manchester United into the relegation zone overnight.
More importantly, it gives Glasner’s project something it has lacked: a signature result. Forest had struggled to adapt to life under their new head coach, and the atmosphere at the City Ground had grown anxious as the home goals dried up. Saturday’s performance — organised without the ball, clinical with it — was the clearest sign yet of what Glasner wants his team to be. It was another week of shocks across Europe, after Fenerbahce stunned Liverpool 3-2 in Istanbul in the Champions League, and Real Madrid needed a late comeback to beat AEK Athens 3-2.
The challenge, as ever after a famous win, is what comes next. Forest must prove that beating the champions was the start of a climb rather than a one-off. But on the night they were the better team in every way that mattered — and when Nottingham Forest beat Man City 3-1, they reminded the Premier League that the champions can still be humbled. Full reaction and highlights from the City Ground are available here.
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