NOTTM FOREST 0, MAN CITY 2
Manchester City’s performance at Nottingham Forest was described as professional as they overcame a stern challenge in the East Midlands.
It was functional rather than flamboyant and sexy football, but City got the job done in pursuit of a record-breaking fourth successive Premier League title.
Goals from Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland secured the points which keeps City second, one point behind Arsenal having played one less match.
Yet Forest caused problems and, with more clinical finishing, they could well have caused an upset as they did last season when they held City to a 1-1 draw at the City Ground.
There were positives in their battle against the drop as they became only the second team to outshoot a Pep Guardiola side home and away in the same season in his entire managerial career.
Forest had 14 goal attempts to City’s 10 but were let down in front of goal whereas the visitors possessed a cutting edge.
This was also the occasion of Guardiola’s 300th Premier League match which have yielded 221 wins, 41 draws and 38 defeats. Of the 18 other managers to take charge of at least 300 Premier League matches, Jose Mourinho (189) recorded the most victories in his first 300 games.
Guardiola, who described it as a “dangerous” game, said: “Coming here Liverpool won in the 99th minute, Arsenal won 2-1, so it is always difficult to come here. A difficult game, we suffered a lot but yeah at the end we take it.
“They played with bravery. They have fast players with a lot of quality, so we found a goal in the moment when it was 10 against 11.
“It is a great victory as we had a lot of games behind us. Now we have a long week to recover.
“The game changed when Bernardo [Silva] came inside and made a lot of passes. It was difficult because the opponents were so tough, aggressive. These games are so, so tough at this stage in the Premier League.”
Embed from Getty ImagesGuardiola added City played better last season when they were held to a 1-1 draw at the City Ground pointing out they were lucky.
He continued: “In the last 20 minutes we were not tired as we had the ball but, before that, we were tired when the opponent had the ball.
“Before the second goal we had got the game in our hands but before that they [Forest] were dangerous.”
Guardiola made two changes to the side that thrashed Brighton 4-0 in midweek.
The big news is that Phil Foden was missing from the squad through illness while Haaland returned to the bench after two games on the sidelines with an unspecified injury.
Mateo Kovacic dropped to the bench with Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku both in the starting line-up.
Ruben Dias was also absent from the squad having remained on the bench for the last match.
Nuno Espirito Santo made two changes to the Forest side that lost 2-0 to Everton last time out.
Gio Reyna dropped to the bench while Nicolas Dominguez was not involved.
Willy Boly made a surprise return to the squad after initially being ruled out while Anthony Elanga also started.
The Premier League anthem was booed by home fans who also directed their venom at Sky pundit Gary Neville over his recent comments on their club.
There was a frantic start to the game which was played at an electrifying pace with Forest feeding off the feverous atmosphere inside the City Ground.
But it was City who carved out the first clear-cut chance in the ninth minute when Kevin De Bruyne’s deflected effect drew a decent save from keeper Matz Sels.
Forest’s Neco Williams went close with an effort which keeper Ederson beat away for a corner.
City also had an early injury scare when Ederson was flattened by Boly from a corner and needed lengthy treatment for a shoulder injury.
The breakthrough came in the 32nd minute when Forest were down to 10 men after Williams had limped off with a hamstring injury and before his replacement Gonzalo Montiel had replaced him.
De Bruyne’s corner from the left was met by Gvardiol who stole un unmarked to head home his third goal for the club – all have come in the last five games.
They have the worst record in the Premier League for conceding set-piece goals as this was their 23rd of the campaign.
Forest fluffed a great chance to equalise shortly afterwards when Montiel’s low cross from the right found Chris Wood with an open goal six yards out but he miscued to the amazement of team-mates and fans alike.
They had another big chance in stoppage time when Ederson failed to gather a corner and Murillo’s flick spun just over, may be even clipping the top of the bar.
City were forced into a change for the restart as Ederson did not reappear as Stefan Ortega took over in goal and Guardiola also made a second as Doku was withdrawn for Kovacic. He left the ground with his arm in a sling, a concern for City.
Wood missed another sitter within two minutes of the resumption as he again failed to connect cleanly from six yards as his miscued effort was blocked.
City made a third change just after the hour as Grealish was replaced by the fit-again Haaland.
De Bruyne came close to doubling City’s lead mid-half with a 25-yard drive which brought a full-length diving save from Sels.
City gave themselves breathing space when they doubled their lead with 19 minutes left when De Bruyne thread a great pass to Haaland who held off the injury Murillo before slotting home a low shot for his 32nd goal of the season.
Callum Hudson-Odoi had a great chance to halve the deficit when his lob was brilliantly clawed out by Ortea.
City made two further changes in the 89th minute when De Bruyne and Julian Alvarez were replaced by Matheus Nunes and Oscar Bobb.