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Liam Delap delivered a sensational performance against his former club, scoring twice to inspire Nottingham Forest to a convincing 3-1 victory over Manchester City at the City Ground. His goals in the 18th and 73rd minutes proved decisive as Forest secured only their second Premier League win of the 2026-27 campaign.
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Jair Cunha gave Nottingham Forest an early advantage in the sixth minute after capitalising on Josko Gvardiol’s defensive mistake, before Delap doubled the lead with a powerful finish following an impressive run from midfield.
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Manchester City briefly threatened a comeback when Rayan Cherki scored a superb half-volley seven minutes into the second half, but Delap ended their hopes with his second goal in the 73rd minute after a swift counter-attacking move.
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The defeat dealt a significant blow to Manchester City’s title ambitions, leaving them six points behind league leaders Arsenal, while Nottingham Forest celebrated an important victory ahead of the international break.
November 07, (THEWILL) – Liam Delap produced a match-winning performance to lead Nottingham Forest to a stunning 3-1 win over Man City at the City Ground on Saturday.
The former Chelsea striker played a pivotal role to hand his former coach, Enzo Maresca, a third consecutive Premier League defeat.
Jair Cunha opened the scoring for Nottingham Forest in the sixth minute, taking advantage of Josko Gvardiol’s error to finish past Donnarumma.
Delap made it 2-0 with a powerful finish in the 18th minute after he made a stunning run from midfield before lashing a powerful strike beyond a hapless Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Erling Haaland’s shot from a tight angle was cleared off the line before Enzo Fernandez directed his header wide.
The hosts took a 2-0 lead into the break as Man City struggled to find their rhythm.
Seven minutes after the restart, Rayan Cherki reduced the deficit with a half-volley to make it 2-1.
Delap put the icing on the cake with another cracking finish following a swift counter-attacking move in the 73rd minute.
Nottingham Forest held on to seal their second win of the season after a turbulent start to the 2026-27 campaign.
Delap has now scored three Premier League goals in seven matches since joining Nottingham Forest from Chelsea in the summer.
The defeat is a huge blow to Manchester City’s title chances after a third successive defeat that has allowed Arsenal to open up a six-point gap on the Premier League table.
Two-goal hero Liam Delap was delighted with his performance against his youth club.
He said: “It has been coming, we have been performing like that every week, we could not put them in the net, but today we did to make everyone happy.
“We did everything right, got the three points, so we are going to be happy going into the international break.
“I just wanted to run and shoot and luckily when I get there, it went in the net [his first goal]. It gave us a little breathing room [his second goal]. It’s always tough playing City, you’re running after them for 90 minutes so we knew it was going to be a battle.
“It was a perfect ball from Morgan [Gibbs-White], he’s set up a lot this season that we’ve not been able to convert so thankfully we could put it in the net.”
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Similarly, Nottingham Forest coach, Oliver Glasner, described it as a very good day to play Man City.
He said: “It was a very good day to play Manchester City but, to be honest, today, the energy in the team and at the City Ground was so incredible that it would have been tough for every team in the world to play against us today.
“So all the credit to the players and our fans for this amazing Saturday evening.”
“It’s not about me or my standards, it’s about our standards. I could see a team today that was fighting for each other. Every single player left his heart on the pitch and, of course, we could see after the goal early in the second half, the quality and the pressure.
The Austrian manager also praised Liam Delap for his match-winning performance in the encounter.
Glasner added: “We knew exactly his strengths when he can use his power and his finish with right and left is just amazing. A lot of things to improve, he’s still a young man in, I would say, his second regular Premier League season.
“Maybe it is his third but he didn’t play so often last year. Today no single player deserves to be mentioned because I thought it was such a team effort. We waited for our situations and how passionately we defended our goal in the box, I could mention everyone.”
After the international break, Man City will be hoping to bounce back from their poor run of form against Fulham at home on November 21, while Nottingham Forest will face Bournemouth away on the same day.
