Gary Neville believes the constant scrutiny surrounding Manchester City over the past month, including talk of relegation from the Premier League, is having an impact on the players.

City are currently six points behind leaders Arsenal after they suffered a 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Enzo Maresca's side made a blistering start to the 2026-27 campaign, picking up seven wins from their opening seven league games, but they have struggled to hit those heights in recent weeks.

Gary Neville suggests pressure is 'starting to seep' into Man City players

After being found guilty of breaching 114 Premier League rules, City could face significant sanctions, including relegation from England's top flight.

The situation at City continues to dominate headlines, and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville believes the ongoing uncertainty - and the pressures that come from that - is beginning to take its toll.

Speaking to NBC Sports after the game, he said: "It's all everybody's talking about back home in the last sort of, what will be, month or so, and those players will be getting asked constantly, 'What do you think is going to happen? What happens if they do get relegated? Will you stay?'

"Now you imagine that your family is having to put up with that, your agents continually thinking about those types of things, so it can't be, I don't think, ruled out as a factor that's going to start to seep in.

"If you lose a football match or two and then you can start to look at that as an excuse, but they've got to play better, they've got to compete in games, they've got to make sure that they do better on the pitch from a tactical, from a physical perspective.

"But I do believe it will be having some impact just because of the weight of what's been hitting them from a publicity point of view in the last four to six weeks."

Enzo Maresca slams Man City players for performance against Nottingham Forest

Speaking in his post-match interview, City boss Enzo Maresca criticised the lack of intensity from his team in the opening 45 minutes.

"First half when you don't match intensity and lose all the duels it's difficult," he told Sky Sports.

"Then when we want to react, it's too late. In this kind of match, you need to match intensity and win duels, otherwise it's always complicated. First half we were not good enough in terms of duels, second balls - we lost all of them.

"Then when we went to react we were 2-0 down and in football that is always complicated."