After seven games, Nottingham Forest’s record is eerily similar to last season: five points, five goals scored. A year ago Forest’s eighth game was a 3-0 home loss to Chelsea that marked the end for Ange Postecoglou, the second of four managers to occupy the dugout last term. There is no suggestion that Oliver Glasner is under similar scrutiny yet, but the Austrian needs to find solutions for the league’s lowest scorers.
Morgan Gibbs-White is available after missing the narrow defeat by Arsenal, while Liam Delap may benefit from a return to familiar surroundings – 12 of his 14 career Premier League goals were scored for Ipswich, six of them at Portman Road. Eight different Ipswich players have scored in seven games; only Brighton and Brentford can better that total this season. Niall McVeigh It was five months ago but it feels a lot longer.
When these two sides met in May to finish the season, the contest doubled as Pep Guardiola’s leaving party after 10 years in the job and twice as many trophies, an era now laden with asterisks. It must be surreal for Aston Villa supporters, too. Their 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium, inspired by two goals from Ollie Watkins to complete a league double over City, came only four days after their Europa League triumph in Istanbul, where Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendía were the scorers.
Buendía is the only one left in claret and blue as Unai Emery builds a new side, one that has picked up in form after a single point from their first four league games. City, meanwhile, are thriving on the pitch: victory would make them just the third side to win their first eight games of a Premier League season. Taha Hashim Max Dowman became the youngest goalscorer in Premier League history with his dazzling solo strike against Everton at the Emirates in March.
But the supremely talented 16-year-old has found opportunities limited this season. Dowman has played only nine minutes in the Premier League despite scoring twice against Ipswich in the Carabao Cup last month as Arsenal have tried to protect their rising star. Yet the suspected quad muscle injury suffered by Bukayo Saka in Wednesday’s 2-2 Champions League draw at Bayern Munich means Mikel Arteta is short of attacking options.
With David Moyes’s side back in north London, it could be the perfect chance for Dowman to step up in his favoured position on the right flank. Ed Aarons Coventry and Fulham have only met twice in the English top flight – back in 1967-68, when the promoted Sky Blues took a single point from two meetings, but stayed up by a point while Fulham went down. It is too early to call Saturday’s game a six-pointer in the relegation battle, but the two teams sit either side of the dreaded dotted line after shaky starts.
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