Currently outside of the Champions League picture let alone the Premier League title race, confidence-depleted champions Manchester City have a seven-game winless run to end when Nottingham Forest arrive at the Etihad on Wednesday night.
Pep Guardiola's troops could not stop the Liverpool juggernaut on Sunday, losing 2-0 to the runaway leaders, while the Tricky Trees edged out Ipswich Town 1-0 to get back to winning ways.
Match preview
A defiant Guardiola found the energy to raise six fingers to the Liverpool crowd as the customary "sacked in the morning" chants bellowed out from the Anfield stands, as the City boss sought to remind the merry Merseyside contingent of just how many times he has conquered the land.
However, six is also how many defeats Man City have suffered in their last seven games following Sunday's unsuccessful stopover at Anfield, where strikes either side of the half-time interval from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah propelled Arne Slot's machine to a richly-deserved victory.
In truth, the stumbling champions were fortunate to still be in the game at half time - Liverpool were being their own worst enemies in the final third for the majority of the match - but the end outcome was still the same, City falling 11 points behind the Reds in the Premier League table.
The Citizens - who have also been bumped outside the top four thanks to their alarming rut - would need to statistically pull off the greatest comeback the Premier League has ever seen if they are to complete a fabulous five-peat, as every team with at least a six-point lead after 13 games has gone on to win the title.
Reeling from losing four straight Premier League games for the first time since 2008, one of which saw Tottenham Hotspur humiliate the Citizens on their own patch, Guardiola's crisis club are at risk of going down in back-to-back top-flight home games for the first time since May 2021.
While City are at risk of suffering a fifth straight Premier League defeat in the midweek battle, Forest stopped the rot at two successive losses, atoning for beating at the hands of Arsenal and Newcastle United when Ipswich Town came to visit.
It was a far from vintage performance from Nuno Espirito Santo's troops, but an early second-half penalty from Chris Wood was all that was required to see off the Tractor Boys, as the New Zealand hotshot drew level with Bryan Roy on a record 24 Premier League goals for Forest.
One Etihad strike away from an unrivalled 25, Wood heads to Manchester only trailing an off-colour Erling Haaland by three goals in the Golden Boot race, netting nine of Forest's 16 efforts during their unexpected early charge for the European places.
Sitting pretty in sixth place in the table - just one point worse off than Wednesday's hosts - Forest arrive at the Etihad with the joint third-best away record in the division this season, with their 11 points on rival turf only inferior to Liverpool's 16 and Chelsea's 13 after six road outings.
However, not since the 2008-09 FA Cup have Forest managed to get one over Man City, who have three wins and a draw to their name against the Tricky Trees since their top-flight promotion in 2022, easing to back-to-back 2-0 wins in the 2023-24 campaign.
Team News
The only minor positive from Sunday's match from a City perspective was the return of Jeremy Doku from a thigh injury, but Rodri (ACL), Oscar Bobb (leg), Mateo Kovacic (unspecified) and John Stones (foot) remain out of contention for the hosts.
Doku injected some life into a toothless Citizens attack at Anfield and should be one of the options for change considered by Guardiola, who waited until the 79th minute to introduce Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne off the bench at Liverpool.
The City boss has hinted that he could deploy Grealish in a central role in a bid to solve his team's creativity problems, while Ederson will no doubt expect to replace Stefan Ortega in goal after a surprise swap at the weekend.
As for Forest, Morgan Gibbs-White and Anthony Elanga both shook off concerns to make the matchday squad against Ipswich, meaning that long-term absentees Danilo (ankle) and Ibrahim Sangare (hamstring) are the visitors' only fitness concerns.
Elanga was only given a brief run-out off the bench after hurting his shoulder in the Arsenal defeat, though, and his stand-in Jota Silva had a telling impact, winning the penalty for Wood to convert early in the second half.
The Portuguese winger should have done enough to warrant a starting role at the Etihad as well, but Neco Williams - another new starter in the Ipswich win - could give way for regular left-back Alex Moreno.
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Lewis, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol; Silva, Gundogan; Savinho, Grealish, Doku; Haaland
Nottingham Forest possible starting lineup:
Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Moreno; Yates, Dominguez; Silva, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood
We say: Manchester City 2-1 Nottingham Forest
No team should rock up to the Etihad and resign themselves to defeat during City's unforeseen slump, and a Forest side who have excelled on the road all season long - Arsenal aside - should give Guardiola's team an excellent run for their money.
However, as the Citizens boss can introduce some tricky wingers and creative hubs into a much-changed attack, we can finally envisage the champions arresting their miserable sequence, but only by a narrow margin of victory.
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