The boss keeps the same Manchester City side that beat West Ham 3-0 last time out as we look to extended our winning streak to eight matches in all competitions.
Rodri is named among the substitutes for the first time since featuring against Bournemouth at the beginning of November.
Jeremy Doku, John Stones, Oscar Bobb and Mateo Kovacic are still missing through injury while City are without Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri who are both at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
TEAMS
FOREST XI: John Victor, Savona, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Dominguez, Anderson, Hutchinson, Gibbs-White (C), Hudson-Odoi, Igor Jesus
Subs: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Douglas Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Bakwa, Zinchenko, Abbott
CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Nico, Bernardo (C), Reijnders, Foden, Cherki, Haaland
Subs: Trafford, Ake, Rodri, Savinho, Khusanov, McAIdoo, Mukasa, Lewis, R Heskey
TACTICS AND FORMATION
With an unchanged line-up, it can only be expected that City go with the same system that proved successful against the Hammers before Christmas.
Of course, Guardiola is always the innovator and he demanded an improvement despite our impressive win a week ago.
The City boss has options to move his players around with plenty of flexibility in the squad, but the set-up of the side is unlikely to change too much after the wins of recent weeks.
20-20 vision
With 19 goals in 17 Premier League games so far this season, Erling Haaland is aiming to reach 20 before the turn of the year.
Only one player in Premier League history has achieved that before. His name? Erling Haaland.
The City striker hit the milestone in the 2022/23 when he broke the record for most Premier League goals.
The Norwegian has five goals in six Premier League appearances against Forest, although 60% of those came in his first game against them in August 2022 when he netted a hat-trick from four attempts.
He’s scored two goals from 10 shots in his last five games against Forest.
Tribute to Robertson
A minute’s applause will be held before kick-off in honour of the Forest great John Robertson.
One of the greatest players in the Club’s history, Robertson sadly passed away at the age of 72 on Christmas Day.
Before today’s game, Guardiola said: “On behalf of Manchester City, I wanted to give big condolences to Forest especially, his family, I know how important he was, scoring in the European Cup, Champions League in that time.
“It’ll be nice to take a tribute on behalf of Man City for an important player for that club.”
STATS, FACTS & MILESTONES
Forest won their last Premier League match against City 1-0 in March last season, last winning consecutive league games against us in September 1995.
City have failed to score in half of their Premier League away games at the City Ground but have avoided defeat in each of the three in which we’ve found the net.
Forest have won their last four Premier League matches played between Christmas and New Year, all under Nuno Espírito Santo in 2023 and 2024. The most recent of those on 29 December last year was against Everton who were then managed by Sean Dyche.
City haven’t lost any of their last 10 Premier League matches played between Christmas and New Year (W8 D2) since losing 3-2 to Wolves on 27 December in the 2019/20 campaign.
Only Wolves (10) have failed to score in more different Premier League games than Nottingham Forest (9) this season. It’s already more than they failed to find the net in the whole of last season (8).
City have won each of our last three Premier League games by a 3-0 scoreline, last winning more consecutively without conceding in February 2021. Meanwhile, no team in English top-flight history has ever won four in a row by 3+ goals to nil before.
Forest won 29 points from their 12 home games between matchday 8 (19 October) and matchday 30 (3 April) in the Premier League last season, with only Liverpool earning more. They’ve won just 11 points from their subsequent 12 at home, with only West Ham (9) and Wolves (8) gaining fewer among ever present sides.
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche is winless in all 16 of his Premier League matches against Pep Guardiola. Only Steve Bruce against Alex Ferguson (17) has managed more games against one manager without a single victory in the Premier League.
