Forest vs Man City player ratings, Premier League: Haaland fails to fire as City’s title challenge stutters

Manchester City's Erling Haaland, centre, reacts during the match against Nottingham Forest. | Photo Credit: AP

Manchester City’s title aspirations suffered a severe setback ‌on Saturday as they slumped to a third straight Premier ​League defeat, conceding twice in the first half before losing ⁠3-1 to Nottingham Forest to fall six points behind leaders Arsenal.

City reeled off seven straight wins to start the campaign, but it was beaten 2-1 away by ‌Aston Villa before losing 1-0 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Champion Arsenal tops of the standings on 27 points after ‌10 games, and City coach Enzo Maresca blamed his side’s woes ‌on ⁠a lack of intensity as Forest scored its first home ⁠goals and secured its first home win of the season.

“In the first half, when you don’t match the intensity, when you lose all the duels, it’s difficult, and then when ​we want to react, it’s ‌too late,” Maresca told Sky Sports.

“In these kinds of games, first of all, you need to match the intensity. You need to try to win duels - otherwise, it’s always complicated. I think (in the) first ‌half we were not good enough in terms of duels. Second ​balls, we lost all of them, and then when we try to react, we were 2-0 down, and in football, ⁠it’s always complicated.”

DELAP DOUBLE

City gave the ball away cheaply for all three goals that they conceded, with striker Liam Delap, who had only scored ‌once in eight league games this season, netting two sensational strikes to carry his side to victory.

Forest coach Oliver Glasner sprinted down ​the sideline to celebrate Delap’s second goal, and he could hardly hide his joy as his side moved up to 16th ⁠place on nine points, out of the relegation zone.

NFO vs MCI - Player ratings

Nottingham Forest: Sels – 7.2, Cunha – 8.1, Milenković – 6.9, Murillo – 6.9, Muñoz – 6.5, Yates – 6.6, Schlager – 7.5, Williams – 7.0, McAtee – 6.6, Gibbs-White – 7.8, Delap – 8.9

Substitutes: Ndoye – 6.6, Netz – 6.3, Foden – NA, Sangaré – NA, Jesus – NA

Manchester City: Donnarumma – 6.1, Khusanov – 5.4, Dias – 4.1, Guéhi – 4.0, Gvardiol – 3.0, Anderson – 5.2, Fernández – 5.1, Ndiaye – 5.2, Cherki – 6.3, Doku – 5.1, Haaland – 5.2

Substitutes: O’Reilly – 5.4, Nunes – 5.4, Foden – NA, Sangaré – NA, Jesus – NA