Soccer
Delap double sinks his former club: Forest stun City 3-1
Six minutes. That was all Nottingham Forest needed to tell Manchester City this Saturday at the City Ground would be like no other. Jair Cunha opened the scoring, Liam Delap then struck twice against his former club, and Forest won 3-1 to climb out of the relegation zone. For City, it is a third straight league defeat — the first such run in two years.
A flying start in the rain
The tone was set in the sixth minute. Jair Cunha robbed Josko Gvardiol of the ball, ran clean through on Gianluigi Donnarumma and scored his first goal in a Forest shirt. Twelve minutes later, Delap doubled the lead: the former City striker picked the ball up in his own half, drove 50 yards and blasted it into the top corner. At half-time Forest led 2-0 with just 22% of the ball — Oliver Glasner game plan working to perfection.
Cherki pulls one back, Delap kills the game
City came out angry after the break. In the 52nd minute, Rayan Cherki pulled one back with a superb half-volley, and five minutes later Erling Haaland came within inches of an equaliser, his curling effort towards the top corner flashing just wide. But Forest did not wobble. In the 73rd minute, Morgan Gibbs-White fed Delap, who finished a counter-attack with a powerful left-footed strike that went in off the post. The Forest bench erupted, and head coach Oliver Glasner sprinted down the touchline to celebrate.
A historic slump for City
The defeat is historic in more ways than one. City, who had won their first seven league games, have now lost three in a row in the Premier League — to Aston Villa, Brighton and Forest — for the first time in two years. No team has lost three straight top-flight matches after a seven-game winning run since Sheffield Wednesday in 1904-05. The champions have also gone nine games without a clean sheet in all competitions, and they conceded three goals to a team that started the day in the relegation zone for the first time since a 3-2 defeat at Norwich in September 2019.
Forest climb out, Arsenal pull away
For Forest, the win changes everything: the club climbs from 19th to 16th on nine points, a first win after five games without one. The direct consequence: Manchester United drop into the relegation zone. City stay second on 21 points, six behind Arsenal, who had earlier beaten Hull 1-0 through Martin Odegaard. After the international break, on November 21, Forest travel to Bournemouth and City host Fulham. Elsewhere on Saturday, Leeds beat Tottenham 1-0 thanks to a 79th-minute Noah Okafor goal, and Fulham drew 1-1 with Newcastle. In the NHL, the Capitals beat the Panthers 4-3 and the Predators downed the Blues 3-1.