Man City & Nottingham Forest fan chants say everything about the Premier League

Nottingham Forest’s first meeting with Manchester City since they were docked points by the Premier League was always going to feel significant.

The Midlands club had four points struck off their 2023/24 total last month and reportedly will find out if their appeal has been successful in the next few days. 

Facing City, the side who were charged with 115 alleged breaches nearly 15 months ago and have not yet faced any action - and may never - was always going to be a sore point. The champions insist they’ve done nothing wrong and are ready to robustly defend themselves against allegations that could have further reaching implications than just sporting sanctions.

Forest, on the other hand, admitted their guilt when they submitted their 2022/23 figures, but contest the nature of the punishment. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situation, the Reds feel aggrieved and harbour a sense of resentment towards the Premier League.

That has only been exacerbated by last week’s bizarre post from the club that criticised referees and brought into question the impartiality of officials. Delusional fans posting blinkered views on social media is one thing, but for a Premier League club to send such a petulant post is emblematic of how tribalism has eroded logic in top-level football.

The cameras flashed to Mark Clattenberg several times on Sunday, another symbol of the Premier League’s dystopian dynamic. The former referee is now leading the witch hunt against his own kind - it’s just bizarre.

A quick scroll through social media, fans forums or club-related websites will show a similar, yet less vindictive, sentiment exists among the supporter bases of all 20 clubs in the English top flight. Most ardent fans can reel off the list of outrageous refereeing errors that have affected their team in recent seasons, all the while overlooking the ample occasions when mistakes have gone in their favour.

Few feel as disgruntled as Forest and that, along with the backdrop of the variant treatments from the Premier League, set an intriguing backdrop to Sunday’s encounter at the City Ground. Pep Guardiola predicted this would happen and pointed to the daunting atmosphere his side would face, while also referencing the short turnaround between trips to Brighton and Nottingham, Forest’s dangerous attackers and last season’s 1-1 draw at the City Ground as reasons for caution against a side scraping for survival.

Yet even the all-knowing Guardiola couldn’t have predicted how abject his side would be for the opening 70 minutes on Sunday. The champions were fortunate to come away with all three points, and it could have been a very different story had Chris Wood remembered how to properly kick a ball.

City rarely look so disjointed, but it’s testament to their character and quality that nerves never seemed to show. It’s especially significant on a weekend when Liverpool all but surrendered any title hopes and Arsenal limped across the line in the North-London derby.

But the blue corner in Bridgford Stand never voiced any concern or frustration. They’re used to this and trust Guardiola and his supremely experienced squad to just keep motoring on at this stage of the season.

They enjoyed poking fun at Forest, too. Chants of ‘we’re going, you’re going down’ accompanied Erling Haaland’s late goal, along with ‘you weren’t even born’, a riposte to the Forest fans who last year claimed City would never see their team become European champions, a feat Brian Clough’s famous side achieved over 40 years ago. City supporters also didn’t miss the opportunity to remind Forest that they are ‘cheats’ - perhaps a few are secretly concerned opposition sides will one day chant the same at them.

But there was one harmonious moment between the fans, who united pre-match to boo the Premier League anthem, as Everton, another side punished by the Premier League, do.

‘Corrupt as f**k’ was the chorus that rang around City Ground on several occasions; too many fans seem to genuinely believe it. It’s a level of delusion that is alarming, that there is a concerted effort from league officials to treat Forest unfairly. When Jack Grealish was scythed down by Danilo in the first half, several fans in the vicinity of the press box watched the on-screen replays and loudly decreed the 28-year-old was a ‘diving so and so’. It’s concerning that so many fans seem incapable of applying reason.

It also sums up where the Premier League is and why the introduction of an Independent Regulator is a necessity. Both clubs, at opposite ends of the scale, feel they’ve been mistreated by the Premier League. As do Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley, who feel like they’ve repeatedly been on the wrong end of refereeing decisions. So do Newcastle United and Aston Villa, who feel the league’s top clubs are creating a glass ceiling to keep them out. So do Liverpool and Arsenal fans, who will readily complain that competing against City’s finances is impossible.

Everyone feels slighted, everyone feels aggrieved, everyone feels like there’s an agenda against their clubs - and today, everyone has a platform to share those nonsensical views.