Nottingham Forest earned their first home Premier League victory of the season with a 3-1 win over Manchester City at the City Ground on 7 November 2026.
Glasner's emotional celebration
Manager Oliver Glasner erupted in joy after Liam Delap's second goal, sprinting down the touchline to join the players. "One of my best running stats, I guess," Glasner joked. "I will be fatigued tomorrow but I can be because it's the international break so I can have a rest." He had earlier described his side's need to move beyond "flower power" and praised the team's defensive passion and tactical intelligence: "The way we play football I think we've had many better games but how we defended, how passionately we defended, how tactically smart we defended, it was one of our better games."
Delap's double
Striker Liam Delap, signed for £50m after a prolific spell at Ipswich and a difficult stint at Chelsea, scored twice in three attempts, marking his first two shots on target in a league match this season. His conversion rate jumped to 67% from a previous 4% (one goal from 24 shots). "As a striker it's the most important thing [to score goals]," Delap said. "The only thing you're judged on. You can play well and not score - really nice to score. Got to keep performing and improving but today I'm happy." Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy called Delap a "really big player" for Forest, noting his fitness, strength, and growing confidence.
Forest entered the match with the second-most shots in the league (152) but the fewest goals (six), the lowest shot conversion rate (4%), and the biggest negative expected goals (-8.3). They had scored only two goals in their previous six home league games combined. The win also highlighted a stark disparity between actual points (six) and expected points (15.49), with Forest sitting 19th in the table versus a projected third. Murphy described the result as a "huge moment in the season" for the club, adding that Glasner had been "unlucky in the first part of his Forest tenure in terms of points they've got with the performances they've had."
