MY ACCOUNT
Manchester City and their wrecking-ball striker Erling Haaland will aim to reproduce Saturday’s scintillating display against Crystal Palace when Nottingham Forest make the trip to Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
City laid siege to Palace, recording a total of 770 passes, 18 shots and 29 crosses amid almost 75% possession in the 4-2 win, and will now look to cut Forest down to size.
Steve Cooper’s men, who sit in 14th place in the table, have made plenty of noise with their big-money summer buys — outspending the champions by some distance.
But City left their scattergun approach to recruitment behind a long time ago with Haaland already beginning to show why he could go down in history as potentially Pep Guardiola’s greatest acquisition.
Team news
Ahead of four tougher fixtures in the first half of September, Guardiola could choose to rotate two or three of his busier players out of the starting line-up.
New signing Sergio Gomez, who got a taste of action at the weekend, could come in for Joao Cancelo at left-back or Kyle Walker — with the Portuguese star switching flanks to the right.
That is probably the only change Guardiola would want to make to a defence that is still without Aymeric Laporte for another month while Nathan Ake remains a doubt after a groin issue.
Julian Alvarez could step up for his first Premier League start after featuring as a substitute in three of City’s first four games.
Kalvin Phillips is still out, but Jack Grealish returned to training recently and may earn a spot on the bench.
Latest signing Renan Lodi is available for Forest, but the Brazilian lacks enough recent meaningful match action in his legs to be considered to start.
Cooper, who is still without injured duo Moussa Niakhate and Omar Richards, could freshen his midfield up with the inclusion of Switzerand international Remo Freuler.
That could see one of the three attacking players that started in Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat against Tottenham drop out with Brennan Johnson potentially the odd man out due to his relative inexperience.
Emmanuel Dennis is also pushing for a spot in the starting side in Manchester after a lively showing off the bench against Spurs.
The stats
Saturday’s game was the first time that City had been two goals down at half time in the Premier League and gone on to win (played 54, lost 51).
Guardiola’s men have now trailed by two goals in four of their last six league games and avoided defeat in all of them.
Erling Haaland scored the 13th hat-trick of his senior career and first for City, despite only registering 16 touches during his 84 minutes on the pitch against Palace.
Three assists in City’s first four league games of the season has taken Kevin de Bruyne’s overall Premier League tally to 89, just three behind Steven Gerrard in 290 games fewer than the Liverpool legend.
Dean Henderson, who denied Harry Kane from the spot on Sunday, has faced five penalties in the Premier League and only conceded one — against Danny Ings in 2020.
He has saved three, with Jack Grealish hitting the bar with his effort in Aston Villa’s 2-0 defeat to Henderson’s Sheffield United in December 2019.
Prediction
City have struck four goals in each of their two home Premier League games this season and there is little to suggest Forest can stop them from matching or bettering that tally here.
The Championship play-off winners would have conceded many more than the five that they have were it not for the brilliant form of Henderson.
Newcastle and Tottenham eventually opened them up to put goals past a defence that was elite in the division below last term, but is now getting found out at Premier League level.
