Glasner's joy as Delap double delivers Forest's first home league win
Nottingham Forest beat Manchester City 3-1 for their first home Premier League win of the season, with Liam Delap scoring twice and Oliver Glasner celebrating wildly on the touchline.
Nottingham Forest secured their first home Premier League victory of the season with a 3-1 win over Manchester City at the City Ground, a result that manager Oliver Glasner greeted with increasingly exuberant celebrations. Jair Cunha's opener drew only a measured thumbs-up from the Austrian, but Liam Delap's second goal prompted a jig in the technical area and his third sent Glasner sprinting down the touchline to join the players. "One of my best running stats, I guess," Glasner told BBC Match of the Day, adding that he could rest during the international break.
The win arrived after a frustrating run in which Forest had taken 152 shots, the second-most in the league, but scored only six goals. They had the lowest shot conversion rate at 4% and the biggest negative expected-goals figure at -8.3. Against City they scored more goals than in their previous six home league games combined. Glasner said it was arguably Forest's best game for team spirit, energy and defending, even though they rarely had the ball and had produced better performances in possession.
Delap, who spent a decade in City's academy before leaving for Ipswich in 2019, had managed one goal in his first eight outings for Forest after his £50m move. Against his former club he had two shots on target in a league match for the first time this season, scoring with two of three attempts. Glasner said the striker lost confidence at Chelsea but is now finding rhythm, while Delap said scoring is the main thing a striker is judged on.
Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy described the result as a huge moment in Forest's season and said Glasner had been unlucky given the performances earlier in his tenure. Murphy also backed Delap to be a really big player for Forest, noting the striker has looked fit and strong and is getting into good positions.
Forest's league position had reflected their wastefulness: they had the largest gap between actual points and expected points, and the biggest positional difference based on that measure. Glasner had previously said his side could not survive on "flower power", a reference to the Woodstock festival, and the win offered evidence that his approach is starting to produce goals as well as possession.
