Maresca ‘concerned’ after Man City suffer third league loss in a row

Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca is concerned about his side's form after they suffered a third Premier League defeat in a row by going down 3-1 at Nottingham Forest.

City won their opening seven games of the season but followed up defeats to Aston Villa and Brighton with a poor reverse at the City Ground.

They were 2-0 down inside 18 minutes as Jair Cunha and Liam Delap scored before Rayan Cherki's fine strike after the break gave them hope.

But Delap's second on the counter-attack killed the game and left Maresca's side six points off leaders Arsenal.

"I'm always concerned, even when we win games," the Italian said. "We need to have balance. We won seven in a row. Now we have lost three in a row, so we need balance on that."

"During the international break, try to understand what we can do better, and try to start again after the international break."

"In the same way we have done the first one, we're going to use this international break to try to clarify what we can do better," he addded.

"We know we do some things better, and also we know we need to improve things. So we are going to use that and try to understand how we can avoid these kind of games," he continued.

Maresca revealed Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol were replaced at half-time due to injury.

"Both injury, both asked for a change," he said. "Marc Guehi an injury. Josko Gvardiol had some issue already during the week, so it was just because they had problems."

The victory could be a coming of age for Delap and Forest, who have struggled to adapt to life under new boss Oliver Glasner, with just one win from their opening nine games.

Delap had scored once in eight games following his club-record move from Chelsea, but his brilliant double proved he can be the man to fire Forest to better things this season.

"It's now for Liam to keep working, getting into his best shape," Glasner said. "Let's say getting back to the Liam Delap he has been at Ipswich, and then even of course improving his game and he has still a lot to improve.

"Definitely not his finishing with left and right, but he has to improve his heading, he has to improve his movements in the box.

"He has to improve his understanding what we're doing out of possession. But, also very honestly, he did very well."

Glasner reacted to Delap's second goal with a touchline sprint to join in the celebrations.

The Austrian said: "Of course, I can't demand from the players they have to outrun the opposition, and I run less than the opposite manager. So I think I had to follow.

"I just was told they were running six or seven kilometres more than City today, and that means I had to run more than Enzo Maresca as well, and I did my job. It was funny for me."