Erling Haaland arrived at the City Ground needing one goal to equal Niall Quinn’s club record of six against Nottingham Forest. He left with his tally still stuck on five.
The chance that would have done it came in the second half. Haaland rounded Matz Sels and had the goal at his mercy, only for Jair Cunha, the Forest centre-back who had already opened the scoring in the sixth minute, to clear the goal-bound shot off his own line.
By then the damage was done. Liam Delap had put Forest two up inside 20 minutes, and although Rayan Cherki pulled one back on 52 minutes, Delap’s second on 73 settled a 3-1 win that was Forest’s first at home this season.
Maresca: “First half was not good enough”
Enzo Maresca, in his first season in charge of City, did not try to dress it up.
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“It is quite clear that the first half was not good enough,” the City manager told reporters. “We didn’t match the intensity that these kind of games required.”
The defeat was City’s third in a row in the Premier League. According to Sky Sports, they are the first top-flight English club in 122 years to win their opening seven matches of a season and then lose the next three.
Arsenal pull six clear
Arsenal had kept pace earlier in the day. A Martin Ødegaard goal saw off Hull City 1-0 at the Emirates, meaning the Gunners went into the international break with nine wins from ten matches and a six-point cushion over Maresca’s side at the top.
For Forest, this was the breakthrough result Oliver Glasner has been chasing. His side had gone into the weekend inside the bottom three on six points from nine matches, and the Austrian’s sprint down the touchline after Delap’s second was not subtle.
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“I had to run more than Enzo Maresca as well,” Glasner told Sky Sports of his celebration.
The win lifted Forest out of the relegation zone.
Haaland’s Forest wait goes on
Haaland has now gone five straight appearances against Nottingham Forest without scoring. His five goals against the club all came in earlier meetings, including a hat-trick on his debut against them in 2022, and Quinn’s record of six has stood untouched since.
The Norwegian still leads the Premier League scoring charts this season, but the chance to take the Forest record from Quinn now rolls over to the reverse fixture.
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