Nottingham Forest test will give insight into how Pep Guardiola plans to manage Man City squad

Manchester City will take on Nottingham Forest on Wednesday in a match that could tell us more about the Blues' approach and strategy this season than their other games have.

City have enjoyed an unusually strong start to the campaign, taking 10 points from a possible 12 while scoring 13 goals along the way. 2-0 and 4-0 wins against West Ham and Bournemouth respectively were followed by a thrilling 3-3 draw at Newcastle, before Pep Guardiola's side pulled off a remarkable comeback to beat Crystal Palace 4-2 on Saturday.

Such has been the relative ease that City have found their rhythm this year, Guardiola has refrained from making wholesale changes to his starting XIs. Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne, Rodri, Phil Foden, Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo have started all four of City's league fixtures, while Ilkay Gundogan and Ruben Dias have both started three.

READ MORE:Pep Guardiola has Erling Haaland plan to manage Man City's next six fixtures

However, the visit of Forest on Wednesday will kick-off a two-and-a-half month long period in which City will play competitive football every three or four days, rather than having a week to recover as has been the case of late.

Less than 72 hours after full-time at the Etihad Guardiola's players will walk out at Villa Park to take on Aston Villa, before then travelling to Spain to face Sevilla in the Champions League three days after that.

Add to the schedule home games against Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund and a trip to Wolves and City will play six games in the 18 days running up to the September international break.

What the congested run of fixtures will tell us is how Guardiola plans to utilise all the options in his squad this season, as in recent years he has taken different