Key events
62 min Back to Doku by the way, will he be yet another player who explodes after an iffy first season learning what Guardiola wants from him, or will he be another Nolito?
62 min City send on Haaland for Grealish, who’s struggled to get into the game.
61 min Forest move it about nicely, playing with confidence and belief. City will be delighted to get out of here with the points, but there’s a lot of work to do before they can do that.
60 min Gvardiol oozes through midfield and, one-on-one with Boly looks to take on his man, but is easily dispossessed.
59 min “I couldn’t say for certain what the best book adaptation is,” writes JR in Illinois, “but I could say for certain what the worst one is: Bonfire of the Vanities. What a disaster. It was so bad there was a book written about how terrible it was, The Devil’s Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood fiasco, which I highly recommend.”
I’ve not read that, but it became a joke because a mate at law school had it in his bag the whole year. JPR, if you happen to be reading this, I hope you’ve since finished it.
57 min On the touchline, Haaland warms up, and I doubt it’ll be long until we see him. Alvarez has been anonymous and another City goal kills it.
56 min “Ben-Hur and Goodfellas were both adaptations and are two of the most important and iconic films of all time,” says Marcus Abdullahi.
And the Ten Commandments.
54 min Aina, who’s been excellent, runs Bernado out of a cross towards the far post then charges upfield, burning past Walker – not many can say that – before the Caity player gets back in.
53 min I can’t believe I forgot Trainspotting when giving some favourite adaptations. As it goes, I don’t love the film, which feels like a succession of set-pieces, but it retains enough of what makes the book great to still be great itself – and the soundtrack is a jazzer. I can’t think of many, if any intros, which evoke a time with such clarity as the opening to Born Slippy.
52 min A long ball over the top and Elanga’s away! But he dithers, Ake gets back at him, and then the flag goes up.
51 min On Gibbs-White, how far do we think he can go? He strikes me as a Klopp-type player, full of attitude, aggression and ability, especially if he can play as a box-to-box midfielder, not just an attacker. I really like him, and if he gets the right move at the right time, he can develop into something really interesting.
50 min Elanga breaks, finds Wood, and he cuts in then feeds Montiel, who lays back to the edge … and Gibbs-White curls around the base of the near post.
49 min City have looked vulnerable at the back, especially in wide areas – or, in other words, Nuno’s tactics have been good, they’ve just been let down by a lack of quality in front of goal.
47 min Oh Chris. Ohhhhhh maaaaaate! Elanga bustles away from Akanji then to and through Walker, hitting the line before flicking square to set Wood for a tap-in! But certain he’s scored, he’s slow and deliberate about his finish, allowing a further tame shot to be blocked! If he’d finished with even basic competence, Forest might be ahead.
46 min City make two changes, Ortega replacing the injured Ederson for the third time this season, while Doku is removed presumably for being wasteful and erratic, Kovacic inserted to add solidity and poise.
46 min We go again.
“While I dearly love the Bogart version of The Big Sleep,” returns Joe Pearson, “they really had to tone down a lot of the sex and drugs from the novel. And I love the anecdote that the movie producers wired Chandler to ask who killed the chauffeur, and he replied he didn’t know.”
“He didn’t know,” a perfect distillation of Chandler’s brilliance.
Half-time email: “The Maltese Falcon an even better film than The Big Sleep for me,” says Andy Townsend Max Williams, “adapted from a lesser book (though still brilliant). Not sure it introduced the Macguffin but probably the most famous version of it.”
Tangentially, The Falcon Malteser was one of my favourite books as a kid, I highly recommend to anyone with little people to buy for.
Half-time entertainment: for some, a fixture between these two will always be synonymous with this.
HALT-TIME: Nottingham Forest 0-1 Manchester City
Forest have played well, City lead. Obviously.
45+4 min “You know, between the Arsenal game and this, I’m beginning to think Liverpool might not win the league after all,” sighs Matt Dony.
They were never going to, I’m afraid. They and Spurs have way more points than their performances merit and no side has ever won the title when inferior to two other sides. That they’ve taken it to here is testament to the genius of Jürgen Klopp.
45+2 min The delivery is brutal too, dipping and swinging at the near post such that Ederson drops it, Murillo unable to force home in the ensuing scramble. But Forest are a proper threat here, with more attempts on goal than City; problem is, the visitors will likely improve in the second half.
45+2 min Again, Aina is the outlet for Forest and he wins a corner down the left, Hudson-Odoi to take.
45 min We’ll have four added minutes.
45 min “Many Raymond Chandler books have been adapted into excellent movies,” reckons Shom Biswas. “The Long Goodbye, my favourite Chandler, is especially is good as a movie too.
I will recommend ‘A Month in the Country’, a delightful little book by JL Carr, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and thought would be very difficult to film. Was pleasantly surprised – excellent movie, with a very young Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branagh.”
Agree on Chandler, whose Big Sleep is responsible not jut for one but two great films, – the other the Big Lebowski.
43 min We see footage of the City players celebrating the goal, Walker giving Gvardiol a hefty nose-tweak.
42 min Forest win a throw down the right and Aina comes over to the left to take it only to go short. Nothing comes of it, but they’re causing trouble when they go forward.
41 min Gibbs-White wins a fine challenge in midfield and the loose ball falls to Wood, who moves on for Hudson-Odoi. He’s options left and right but instead shoots, booting De Bruyne on the backswing to ruin any chance of seriously testing Ederson.
40 min “Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Man Who Would Be King, The African Queen and so on. John Huston was the master,” reckons Neil Daener.
38 min Aina’s been a really good outlet for Forest down the left and here he is again, flighting a fine cross towards the far post, Montiel reflects it back across and Wood’s there, five yards out … only to botch his tap-in, a weak touch sending the ball square not forwards. That is a colossal oversight.
37 min “The Third Man isn’t strictly an adaptation of a book,” reckons Paul Curievici. “Greene wrote the novel as a script treatment and it was never intended for publication, which came after the film’s success. Hoping Forest offer us Arsenal fans some Ways Of Escape today so we can embrace The Power And The Glory rather than leaving our title challenge a Burnt Out Case. Here all week, veal, etc.”
I know what you mean, but Greene did realise that to make the film he needed to write the novel first, so he did.
36 min Hudson-Odoi takes a free-kick quick, sliding down the line to Aina, who crosses towards Wood … but another of those big lads who can run, Nathan Aké, gets up early to do enough.
35 min Montiel replaces the injured Williams. I don’t think making the change before the corner would’ve stopped the goal, but you never know.
34 min It’s mad really, Guardiola is a bona fide football genius and the foremost tactical mind of his generation, yet it took him until last season to discover that players who can run and are hard can be useful. His back-fours now features three centre-backs, sometimes four, and it’s made City so much harder to disturb.
GOAL! Nottingham Forest 0-1 Manchester City (Gvardiol 32)
A corner curved to the near post and Gvardiol runs away from Gibbs-White on the far side of the box to deftly guide a fine header inside the near post. They’ve not played well, but they still lead, and that is ominous for Arsenal.
32 min Williams limps off and though i think he’ll be OK to continue, Forest now have to defend the corner with 10.
30 min Williams blocks a Grealish shot and hurts himself in the process.
29 min Walker crosses low from the left but De Bruyne’s shot is blocked.
27 min “I think two great examples of middling quality books being adapted into amazing films are Jaws and Die Hard,” says Jack Ball. “And it’s the obvious answer but The Lord of the Rings books were incredible as both books and films.”
I’ve neither read nor watched, but the Bible, on which Life of Brian is based, is another good example.
25 min “As a Notts County fan, and like many in the East Midlands, I’d not lose any sleep about them Tricky Trees going down,” begins Richard. “Especially.given the rather cringeworthy media love-in there seems to be with them. Personally, I think Burnley or Luton staying up rather than a millionaire’s plaything would be much more romantic.”
Burnley no, Luton fair enough. But those of us who remember the latter’s craven compliance with Thatcher’s aborted /ID card farrago might not consider anything they achieve to be “romantic”?
23 min A Danilo foul means City have a free-kick 25 yards out, left of centre … and he De Bruyne curls into Boly’s face. He takes a moment, but he’ll be fine.
22 min For a second it looks like a long pass has put Hudson-Odoi in! But Ake, who looks beaten, stretches out a leg and Steffen can then come to create.
22 min Grealish and De Bruyne combine to welease Wgvardiol, who crosses behind.
21 min Forest will be very pleased with how they’ve started, City generally kept at arm’s length and the threat on the counter a real one.
19 min “Watching City do City things at 0-0 when you’re really hoping the match won’t be a blowout brings to mind another Wonka quote,” says Joe Pearson. “‘The suspense it terrible. I hope it will last.’”
Wonka has to be one of the greatest book adaptations ever. The Third Man is also good, the Godfather too of course. Any more for any more?
18 min The problem for Ederson is with his left shoulder, so Ortega warms up for a bit but he’s not required.
16 min Ederson is down, having come for the cross and collided wih Boly. I think he’ll be OK.
16 min Ederson can’t hold the next corner but he does get it away.
15 min And now Williams brings Forest away, his cross sent behind for a corner which yields another…
14 min Forest clear the corner but lose the ball, Doku not catching his shot which lollops wide of the far post.
13 min De Bruyne whips in a beauty, Murillo heading over the his own bar with Rodri lurking.
13 min De Bruyne finds Doku, who twinkles between Niakhate and Aina, winning the free-kick near the right corner of the box…
12 min Gibbs-White curls over the wall … and over the bar.