Congratulations, you have just been Nuno’d.
Pep Guardiola is not the first Premier League manager or head coach to suffer that fate this season. He is also unlikely to be the last.
Nuno Espirito Santo has now won four Premier League games against Guardiola, following Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 defeat of Manchester City on Saturday. Only Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, with five, has registered more victories when facing the Spaniard in the competition.
Nuno, who recorded two of those wins with Wolves and one each with Tottenham Hotspur and now Forest, is not the sort of character who would reveal whether this one mattered more to him than the others. He declined to concede, even, that this was a landmark victory.
But what is not up for debate is that this was a performance — and a result — that perfectly personified the identity he has instilled in his Forest side. In the space of 95 minutes, Forest demonstrated every one of the qualities that have been the catalyst for their remarkable, unexpected rise from relegation candidates in the previous two seasons into third place in their purest form.
4 – Nuno Espírito Santo has won four Premier League games against Pep Guardiola, in the Spaniard’s top-flight league career only Jürgen Klopp (5) has more wins against him. Impressive. pic.twitter.com/mTbEBfmPlS
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 8, 2025
Standing in opposing dugouts at the City Ground, the two managers cut very different figures. Nuno in a Forest-branded Adidas ensemble of full-length coat, tracksuit and trainers, Guardiola in an expensive-looking black jumper, combat trousers and skater-style trainers — not an outfit many 54-year-old men can pull off.
Guardiola has frequent bursts of kinetic energy; his hands going from offering a whirlwind of instructions to clasping his head in a pantomime pose of pure frustration. Nuno, with his more reserved stance, watching, observing, taking everything in.
Two very different managers, two very different teams and ultimately, one of each coming out on top. While Guardiola might have edged the fashion stakes, he did not triumph where it mattered most.
When asked in his post-match press conference if there had been moments when he felt the match was going to his plan, rather than Guardiola’s, Nuno’s response was short but definitely to the point: “No, not all the game. There was a moment — when the game was stretched and it became up and down like a basketball game — that was good for us.”
Play was certainly in that kind of phase when, in the 83rd minute, after Ola Aina had made a timely tackle, Morgan Gibbs-White — so often Forest’s most creative force — swept an outstanding ball over to the home team’s right side, dropping perfectly for Callum Hudson-Odoi.
City were caught on the back foot and, when the winger angled into the box, a swift shimmy of his feet created the room for him to find another gap, beating goalkeeper Ederson at his near post with a powerful drive.
(Ed Sykes/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
But Forest had worked so hard to get to that moment. So much had gone into it. They began the match with a 4-4-2 formation, with Anthony Elanga and Chris Wood — their two furthest men forward — taking it in turns to drop deeper when City had the ball.
And, as is so often the case with Forest, the opposition had the ball a lot. Yet, despite City having 69 per cent of the possession, Forest’s discipline and determination ensured they had only the occasional sight of goal.
Full-backs Aina and Neco Williams were outstanding. But they were aided greatly by the work rate of Hudson-Odoi and Nico Dominguez. Though deployed as a winger, the latter made eight tackles in the 69 minutes he was on the pitch, according to Opta. It was the second-most tackles made by a Forest player in a Premier League game over the past three seasons — with Williams having made the most, 10 against Tottenham in December 2023.
“It is very difficult to stop City. They are so talented and create so many pockets. Their short game is very, very, very hard to deal with,” Nuno said. “Of course, we are pleased with the way we defended. But there is no other way to play against teams like this. If you ignore the talent… the defensive part of the game, you are making a mistake. We kept a clean sheet and we are proud of that.”
This was a 12th clean sheet of the season for Forest and their goalkeeper, Matz Sels. No team in the top flight have more (leaders Liverpool also have 12). Eleven of Forest’s 15 league wins during the current campaign have now come without them conceding a goal.
Normally — and largely correctly — it is the formidable centre-back duo of Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic who get most of the plaudits for such defensive resolve. And Brazilian Murillo did make 10 clearances in yesterday’s game. But this was also a team effort and, more than that, every one of Nuno’s tactical changes worked.
Guardiola had made four substitutions by the time Kevin De Bruyne and former Forest transfer target Omar Marmoush came on in the 69th minute. But, during the same flurry of changes, Nuno introduced Ryan Yates for Dominguez, who had run himself into the ground — and changed to a more attacking 4-2-3-1 formation. Yates almost immediately battled to win the ball back in a moment that got the home crowd to their feet.
Nuno’s reaction to today’s huge win. 🗣️
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) March 8, 2025
And, with seven minutes of the 90 to go, Hudson-Odoi — who had already been denied by an outstanding save when Ederson pushed his shot onto the post — came up with the game-winning moment, just as he did in September, when Forest registered a previous landmark 1-0 win away to now champions-elect Liverpool.
Then there was the familiar sight of centre-back Morato, brought on in the 87th minute, to help Forest see the game out in a back three.
GO DEEPER
Nottingham Forest 1 Manchester City 0: Hudson-Odoi’s knockout blow, where does it leave Euro chase?
This is a side who have taken four points from title-bound Liverpool, who hammered Brighton & Hove Albion 7-0, who have defeated Aston Villa and Manchester United. While City might have lost some of their identity this season after four straight Premier League championships, Forest have emphatically found their own.
When asked if he expected Forest to finish in the top four, Guardiola’s response was to point out that, if a team is in third place in the table with 10 games left to play “it is because they are good”. Forest have become not just good, but exceptional at utilising this brand of game plan.
Nottingham Forest 1-0 Man City FT
A huge result in the race for Champions League football as Callum Hudson-Odoi earns Forest a massive three points.
Pep Guardiola has never lost more games in a league season than he now has in 2024-25 (nine) #NFOMCI pic.twitter.com/MFluWfstUp
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) March 8, 2025
Over the past 20 Premier League seasons, the average number of points required to secure a fifth-place finish — which is likely to be enough for a spot in the 2025-26 Champions League because of England’s European coefficient score — has been 63.4. Forest are on 51 with 30 yet to play for.
The job is far from done. But if these players and their manager can retain this identity in the remaining games, the landmark moments will surely keep arriving.
GO DEEPER
Inside Forest Q&A: Sangare and Aina’s futures, gameplan for City, Yates for England?
(Top photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
