Man City v Nottingham Forest

Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest Preview

Manchester City will play host to Nottingham Forest at their Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon on the back of an ominous looking five-match winning streak to start the defence of their Premier League title and no doubt the hosts will be eager to collect a sixth win on the trot in order to pull away at the top of the table.

Victories against newcomers, Burnley, Newcastle United, newly promoted Sheffield United, Fulham and West Ham have handed Pep Guardiola's side the perfect start and The Citizens have made an early statement to the rest of the division, reminding the rest of their competitors that they are still the team to beat in this new season.

Such has been Manchester City's dominance that the hosts have suffered just the one defeat in their last 22 matches overall in the English top flight whilst also collecting a staggering total of 19 wins in the process, so they do indeed look set to add to their points tally this Saturday afternoon.

In addition, Manchester City have won their last 12 home games on the trot, scoring two goals or more on 10 occasions along with keeping five clean sheets as well, so Nottingham Forest look to have their work cut out here.

Onto Nottingham Forest then, and the Tricky Trees have made a decent fist of things in the early stages of this new Premier League campaign as the east midlands side currently occupy eighth place in the early standings and includes picking up two wins that have come in the form of victories over Sheffield United and most impressive of all, a 1-0 win away at Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

However, defeats suffered on the road at Arsenal and Manchester United do not appear to bode well for this upcoming trip to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, neither does the fact that Forest have managed to capture just one win out of their previous 13 outings on the road in the English top flight.

Nottingham Forest manager, Steve Cooper, may therefore be hoping for damage limitation here rather than attempting to mastermind an upset especially as his side have stumbled to nine defeats within this wretched sequence of 13 away games.

To make matters worse, the bigger picture shows Nottingham Forest have picked up just two wins out of their last 22 away trips in the Premier League and this doesn't fill one with much confidence that they can match City's quality and drive here this Saturday.

One thing that may be in Forest's favour though is that Manchester City are involved in Champions League action in midweek.

Manchester City v Nottingham Forest Verdict

Manchester City are the obvious favourites here but Nottingham Forest might just frustrate their hosts and keep the scores close in this fixture.

Therefore, our main bet will be Under 2.5 goals @ 1.80

Other side bets worth considering:

Man City win & Under 3.5 goals @ 2.20

Correct score: Man City 2-0 @ 7.00