England Premier League
Wednesday 31st August 2022
Kick off at 7:30pm BST
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Match Preview:
Should other clubs be afraid of the champions because it could be argued that Pep Guardiola’s side are stronger now than they were at this time last season. Of course having Erling Haaland helps as it proved last weekend when the Norwegian scored a second half hat trick to help his side over come Crystal Palace who were leading 2-0, in the end City ran out 4-2 winners.
Any club City face at the Etihad will be the outsiders but in Nottingham Forest’s case and with all due respect you could win a small fortune if they won, their price is generally 23.00 but some establishments are going as high as 30.00. In short City should win and win very well. At home so far Guardiola’s side have beaten Palace and Bournemouth and scored 8 goals each time, with 13 in total they have the joint best with Liverpool and are in 2nd place. City’s only dropped points so far came against Newcastle as they drew 3-3 and they are two points behind leaders Arsenal coming into this midweek batch of games.
Nottingham Forest have actually not been too bad and have four points from four games. They have already beaten West Ham and drew with Everton, at the weekend they were beaten 2-0 by Tottenham a result that would have been expected. Perhaps there should be concern on the amount of money that Steve Cooper’s side have spent to only have scored 2 goals so far but for now Forest are stable and fine, even if they lose this game because many will expect them to do so. The key of course is that they do not get thrashed.
Team News:
Manchester City: Jack Grealish is only 50/50 to return from a knock, Nathan Ake may miss out again but could well return for next weekend. Kalvin Phillips will be assessed due to his shoulder injury and Aymeric Laporte is about a month away with his knee injury.
Nottingham Forest: Orel Mangala is out with his hamstring and could miss the next 2 weeks. Moussa Niakhate (muscle) and Omar Richards (leg) are out long term.
Man City vs Nottm Forest Head to Head:
The clubs have not played each other for 13 years, it was an FA Cup game which Forest won 3-0.
They have not played a league match since 2002 when City won 3-0.
From the last 8 meetings Forest have won just twice.
Man City vs Nottm Forest Prediction:
Forget the head to heads for this game, it is day and night, light years whatever you want to call it, but the evolution of Manchester City is off the scale since the last time the clubs played each other and we need to take into account where the clubs are at now. There are no doubts for us that City will win this game but they are huge odds on to do so, so it is best to look into different markets.
For Forest they will need to focus without the ball, possibly try to counter. Make no mistake Forest are the clear underdogs but they will have chances to score, this is how City play and how the Premier League is as a whole, even the team expected to get thrashed produces chances. The one worry for City is that we have seen a trend with them to start slowly and go a goal behind and not really click until the second half and one day that may catch up with them. Forest know they will probably lose here but they don’t want to do a Bournemouth and lose 9-0 as it obviously does nothing for confidence.
Man City vs Nottm Forest Betting Tips:
Handicap: Manchester City to beat Nottingham Forest with a -2 goal start at 1.66
Erling Haaland to score 2+goals at 2.25
Anytime goalscorer: Kevin De Bruyne at 2.00
Manchester City to score 4+ goals at 2.00
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