Nuno Espirito Santo's emergence as a manager of real quality has mirrored the rise of the men from the City Ground, who almost 12 months ago survived relegation to the Championship by just six points whilst Pep Guardiola's side stormed to another English top-flight title - an unprecedented fourth in a row and their sixth in seven years.
After coming in from the Saudi Arabian wilderness, where he'd been since being sent packing from Tottenham Hotspur within a few months of the start of his tenure in North London, Nuno took over at Forest in December 2023 from Steve Cooper and guided them to safety.
A full summer to work with his players later and the Portuguese tactician signalled his intent in 2024/25 with an away win in September at Liverpool, Forest's first at Anfield since February 1969.
He followed that up in December with his side's first win against Man United at Old Trafford since 1994, when Stan Collymore was in his pomp.
A recent 5-0 mauling at Bournemouth was followed up by a 7-0 win against Brighton but those two crazy results aside, Nuno's Forest have been reasonably consistent and have taken some big scalps along the way.
If they can reverse their 3-0 loss at the Etihad Stadium earlier this season in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off, it would really set Forest up nicely for a late season push into the Champions League places too.
Recent history is against them, however, as they're winless in their last nine league games against Man City (D2 L7) since a 3-2 triumph at Maine Road in December 1997.
City have also won their last three Premier League games against Forest by an aggregate score of 7-0, although the fact that they’ve never won four in a row against them in the top-flight before should give the home support at the City Ground hope of another big result.
The hosts could certainly do with the three points as they're three games without a win in the league since that 7-0 mauling of the Seagulls. Back in April 2024 they went four without a win (D1 L3), and who should the fourth game of that run be against? Man City of course, a game which ended 2-0 with goals from Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland.
With 20 goals and three assists in 26 games this season, Haaland will again be the danger man for a Forest side who have their own in-form front man in the shape of Chris Wood. The only Forest player to score against City since the Tricky Trees came back up to the Premier League in 2022, Wood has been involved in 11 goals in his last nine Premier League games (8G, 3A).
At the opposite end of the pitch, Erling Haaland et al might find goals hard to come by, given that Forest's 11 clean sheets in the English top-flight this season is only bettered by Liverpool's 12.
As can be seen in the graphic below too, Forest like to dominate the ball in the central areas of the pitch, with an emphasis on moving it down their left side whilst keeping things busy and tight in those areas and breaking at pace as and when a move calls for it.
Stopping the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Omar Marmoush getting their foot on the ball in those central areas or, if they do, not giving them time to settle, has to be a major facet of Forest's play on Saturday.
Getting physical is arguably where Forest can win the game too.
Their 499 tackles made this season (409 won) is far better than City's 350 total tackles, of which 211 were successful.
It's clear that the reigning champions love to manipulate possession of the ball, taking football geometry to a new level in the process, but those numbers support the theory that when the going gets tough in a physical sense, they don't tend to get going.
Perhaps the one player that Guardiola might look to as someone who could 'put their foot in' is January signing Nico Gonzalez.
However, if we compare his output to that of Elliot Anderson, who Nuno could well station as his defensive midfielder against City rather than Ryan Yates, the results are stark.
Yes, Anderson has spent significantly longer on the pitch than his contemporary, but Nico's primary role is that of protecting his back four, ergo being heavily involved in the defensive aspects of the game.
A fantastic touches-per-90 reading would be pleasing enough if it didn't merely underscore Pep's obsession with possession and not a lot else.
Forest's passing accuracy has shown a marked improvement too, with the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White (81.5%) Elliot Anderson (82.2%) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (88.8% - Forest's best) needing to get on the ball as much as possible in order to set the tempo against a team who thrive on calling the tune themselves.
It won't surprise anyone to note only two players in City's entire squad have dipped below 80% pass completion success either. Divin Mubama (66.7%) can't really be considered a regular for the team as yet, whilst Haaland (65.3%) is a country mile off his teammates in this metric. Thank goodness for them that he knows where the net is.
It's up front where the hosts will need to consider varying their point of attack, too, if they want to win the game. Wood's six headed goals is by far the most of any Forest player, but with Josko Gvardiol having come out on top of the majority of his 63 headed duels, ditto Ruben Dias and Abdukodir Khusanov, Nuno's side may find that their purpose is better served by playing balls in behind or over the top, rather than crosses in from either side.
As we can see from Hudson-Odoi's touches in the area during the recent Arsenal game, the 24-year-old only foraged for chances inside the box on two separate occasions, with most being down his team's right-hand side (despite him starting out on the left), undoubtedly looking for that ball in for Wood to power home.
Very simply, that kind of tactic is unlikely to work for the hosts on Saturday, at least not consistently.
That's because City have more than enough about them in a defensive sense to be able to withstand an aerial bombardment.
It could be an absorbing lunchtime watch and whoever comes out on top could begin to strengthen their grip on a top-four finish.
