Manchester City are used to challenging for Premier League and Champions League honours at this stage of the season, but there is a very real danger of Pep Guardiola's side missing out on a place in Europe's premier club competition next season.

They dominated possession at the City Ground and created the only opportunities of a drab first half, but neither Erling Haaland nor Nico Gonzalez were able to find a way past Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels.

Guardiola was growing increasingly frustrated with his team's lack of guile in the final third, but there was little improvement from the visitors in the second half and the closest they came to scoring was through Mateo Kovacic in added time - eight minutes after Callum Hudson-Odoi had squeezed a shot past Ederson to win the game for Forest.

City can have few complaints with the outcome as they slipped to a ninth league defeat of a tumultuous season - their joint-most in a single campaign under Guardiola.

This was also the fifth time City have failed to score in a top-flight game this season - their worst tally under Guardiola since 2016-17.