Haaland and Foden return for Forest clash | OneFootball

Erling Haaland returns to City’s starting line-up as one of two changes for Manchester City’s Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest.

Men's Team

Silva and Cherki star in Forest matchday programme

Our number 9 missed the victory over Leeds United at the weekend but returns to the starting line-up in place of Omar Marmoush.

Nico O’Reilly was forced off with a knock in the 1-0 victory at Elland Road and is not in the matchday squad.

Phil Foden comes into the starting line-up as we aim for our seventh straight win all competitions.

Team News

CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Guéhi, Ait-Nouri, Rodrigo, Bernardo (C), Semenyo, Cherki, Foden, Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Doku, Nico, Savinho, Khusanov

NOTTINGHAM FOREST XI: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Jair Cunha, Murillo, Williams, Anderson, Sangare, Dominguez, Gibbs-White (C), Jesus

Subs: Gunn, Morato, Hudson-Odoi, Awoniyi, Ndoye, Hutchinson, Yates, McAtee, Netz

Tactics and formation

City look likely to go with a similar plan to the one that has seen us win six of our last matches in all competitions.

That sees Matheus Nunes and Rayan Ait-Nouri as our full-backs either side of Ruben Dias and Marc Guéhi in the centre of defence.

Rodri will continue in the holding midfield role with support from skipper Bernardo Silva offering support.

Rayan Cherki and Foden will pull the attacking midfield strings with Haaland and Antoine Semenyo acting as our furthest forward attackers.

Portuguese men of war

It’s a strange fact that for a manager that enjoys having Portuguese players in his side, Guardiola has a remarkable record against coaches from that country.

Bernardo Silva captains today’s side with Nunes and Dias also starts for the Blues against Vitor Pereira’s side.

Pep has won 17 of his last 20 Premier League matches against Portuguese managers, including two wins over Wolves when Pereira was boss in May and August last season.

Incredibly, the only other time these two have met was in August 2011 in the UEFA Super Cup when Barcelona beat Porto 2-0 in Monaco.

Stats and facts

City have won four of our last five Premier League matches against Forest, winning 2-1 earlier this season at the City Ground.

Since returning to the Premier League in 2022/23, Nottingham Forest have lost all three of their away Premier League games at the Etihad without scoring, conceding 11 times. They are winless in eight away top-flight visits since a 3-0 win in November 1989.

Forest’s run is one of three instances a side has failed to score while shipping 10+ goals at a stadium in the competition, along with Birmingham City at Old Trafford (0 goals, 17 conceded) and Bradford City at Old Trafford (0 goals, 10 conceded).

City have won 16 of our last 19 Premier League home games, at least three more than any other side since April 2025.

Just under two fifths of City’s Premier League wins this season have been by one goal, beating Newcastle 2-1 and Leeds 1-0 in our last two. It’s the highest proportion of wins by a single goal since 2012/13 (52% - 12/23).

Across his spells at Wolves (10 games) and Forest (2), Vítor Pereira remains winless in the Premier League this season (D2 L10). Only two managers have taken charge of more games in a campaign in the competition without winning: Paul Jewell in 2007/08 (24, all with Derby) and Terry Connor in 2011/12 (13, all with Wolves).

Under Pep Guardiola, we have won 24 of our 26 Premier League games on a Wednesday at the Etihad, averaging 2.85 points-per-game – the best of any side under a manager at home on a specific day of the week in the competition’s history (10+ games played).

Only Chris Wood (37) has scored more Premier League goals for Forest than Morgan Gibbs-White (24, level with Bryan Roy). Gibbs-White’s seven goals this season are his joint-most in a Premier League campaign (also 7 in 2024-25).

Nico O’Reilly has scored three goals in City’s last two Premier League home games, while a goal in this game would make him only the second player to score in three successive home appearances in the competition for the club while aged 20 or younger after Phil Foden in July 2020.