Kick-off: 1500, 18/02/2023
Stadium: City Ground
Manchester City have finally made it back to the summit of the Premier League and they will fancy their chances of staying there.
Pep Guardiola’s defending champions swapped places with Arsenal thanks to a 3-1 victory at the Emirates on Wednesday night and next up it’s a team they thrashed 6-0 earlier in the campaign.
That hammering at the end of August remains Forest’s worst result of the season and there has been improvement since – especially in recent weeks.
But an away win is the pick here and the visitors to be winning at half-time and full-time at 17/20 is our first Nottingham Forest vs Man City prediction.
Nottingham Forest Odds
Forest’s six-goal drubbing by City came during a torrid spell for the promoted outfit as they also shipped four goals to Leicester and five to Arsenal.
It looked like a long road ahead but they are now sitting in 15th place in the table and before losing at Fulham last weekend had been on a five-game unbeaten run in the league.
Boss Steve Cooper was left to rue missed chances against the Cottagers, saying: “I was convinced that we would equalise. I thought it would be a matter of time. But we should have done better with the chances that we had. We should have been more clinical.”
If he can get that right Forest could ripple the visitors’ net. City have kept a clean sheet in eight of their 23 league games but most of them were earlier in the campaign and only twice in the last 11 have they shut out the opposition.
Looking at the Nottingham Forest vs Man City odds, an away win with over 4.5 goals combined in the match is 17/5.
Last Forest line-up: Navas, Aurier, Boly, McKenna, Lodi, Freuler, Mangala, Johnson, Gibbs-White, Scarpa, Wood.
Man City Odds
City boss Guardiola refused to get too carried away after knocking Arsenal off top spot, where they had sat since the third week of the season.
The teams are level on points, with City having a better goal difference but the Gunners do have a game in hand.
Guardiola said: “There are still many games to play, the Champions League is coming, the Europa League is coming, so – but importantly is the fact we could have come here a few weeks ago eight or nine points behind and losing here will be almost over.
“Now for the fact that they dropped points, we came here for the chance to win the game and now we are there (level at the top of the league).
“So far they’ve got better results than us – this is the reality.”
Nevertheless, Guardiola will be happy with the way things are panning out for his side, and to see Erling Haaland back on the scoresheet after three blank games on the bounce.
The big Norwegian, who scored a first-half hat-trick in the reverse fixture, will be well backed to add to his 26 Premier League goals and the 7/2 for him to net in both halves is the final selection in our Nottingham Forest vs Man City betting tips.
Last City line-up: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Ake, Silva, Rodri, Mahrez, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Grealish, Haaland.
Additional stats
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