Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City: Betting Odds & Prediction
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Nottingham Forest host Manchester City in a match with huge implications for both ends of the Premier League table on Sunday afternoon.
Pep Guardiola’s side are well primed with just a few hurdles left of the title race to go, while Forest are fighting for their lives at the bottom. It is worth noting that City have not lost to Forest since the Reds returned to the top-flight. Kick off at the City Ground is set for 4:30pm UK time.
Recent Form
Nottingham Forest
The fallout from Forest’s 2-0 defeat at Everton last weekend has centred on refereeing, and they were highly unfortunate not to be awarded three penalties, but they now need to regroup and pick themselves up for a huge end to the season. They lie in 17th on 26 points, just one point ahead of Luton and three ahead of Burnley, who they play in a potentially titanic clash on the final day.
Nuno Espirito Santo will be hoping to take advantage of what is likely to be a siege mentality at home, with everyone at the club united in their outrage towards the league’s officials, and they desperately the crowd’s help if they are to beat the treble winners. Forest’s home form kept them up last year but they have struggled this season, picking up 1.18 points per game which is the 17th-best record in the league. Their problems have been creating chances, accumulating just 1.2 expected goals (xG) per game at home.
The Reds are however unbeaten in their past three league games at home, picking up a win and two draws. The talismanic Morgan Gibbs-White has returned to form at the season’s crunch time, with two goals and two assists during Forest’s home unbeaten run. He will be central to any chance Forest have of picking up a result here.
Manchester City
City have shown no signs of wilting under the pressure of the title race, comfortably dispatching Brighton 4-0 on Thursday night to move within a point of league leaders Arsenal. They also have a game in hand on the Gunners.
City are unbeaten in their past eighteen league games, and appear to be on one of those ominous runs so reminiscent of their recent title-winning campaigns. They have stepped up a gear lately, winning four in a row and scoring a remarkable seventeen goals in those games, even without Erling Haaland playing in two of them. City have won 69% of their away games this season, scoring 2.31 goals per game. 75% of their road trips have gone over 2.5 goals.
After his brace against Brighton, the campaign for Phil Foden to win PFA Player of the Year is gathering pace. He had missed the two previous games with a knock after scoring a hat-trick against Aston Villa, and he now has 16 goals and 7 assists in the league this season.
Prediction
City are understandably heavy favourites, but there is little value in backing them to win on the moneyline. They have been unstoppable in front of goal recently, and with Kevin de Bruyne and Phil Foden back to full fitness, with Haaland possibly returning as well, OddsNow expect their goalscoring exploits to continue here.