Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne struck in the first half for Manchester City
Jeremy Doku added a third in the second half to end their winless run
LISTEN NOW: Manchester City correspondent Jack Gaughan joins It's All Kicking Off! to explain whether Pep Guardiola will have money to spend in January
By JACK GAUGHAN
Published: 16:28 EST, 4 December 2024 | Updated: 16:35 EST, 4 December 2024
The champions of England won a football match. All fairly routine, nothing to see here.
It felt normal. It felt like the last five weeks hadn’t existed. Yet they did, they existed in every touch, in every Pep Guardiola moan of anguish and frustration. Manchester City lived every one of those defeats in beating Nottingham Forest; the trick now is to follow this up at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
It’d be disingenuous to suggest that City are suddenly ready to launch opposition to Liverpool because this is only one win, one night. Guardiola will know there were patterns of their dismal seven-match winless run evident against Nuno Espirito Santo’s usually progressive Forest.
But the City manager will also leave encouraged by a little extra pep he witnessed. Even more encouraged that Kevin De Bruyne is back. Starting, powering City on after more than two months of pelvic injury problems.
‘De Bruyne is warming up and the whole country is shaking,’ were the words of Jurgen Klopp little over 11 months ago. His feeling was that City would be galvanised by the re-emergence of their talismanic midfielder then and, watching from afar these days, Klopp will have the same opinion now.
And it’s a strange phenomenon, really. The return of the king – the only man since Colin Bell deserving of that description around these parts – doesn’t only offer an ailing City some ingenuity when they require it most. He makes the rest of them stand a bit taller, run a bit harder. De Bruyne’s mere presence drives a subconscious desire to impress the best in the playground.
Kevin de Bruyne scored and provided an assist as Man City beat Nottingham Forest
The Belgian, making his first league start since September, fired in Man City's second goal
The victory ended Manchester City and Pep Guardiola's run of seven matches without a win
That is what the Etihad Stadium resembled for much of the evening. De Bruyne played a role in the eighth-minute opener and scored one himself just after the half hour as City offered more energy, spark and zip.
Bernardo Silva, for one, has not played like this for a long time. Like the impish Duracell bunny of the Treble campaign on the right, bundling in a De Bruyne header floating wide from Ilkay Gundogan’s cross.
When higher up the pitch, Gundogan appeared to possess an extra half a yard – leaving Morgan Gibbs-White standing with a clever run in the build-up to Silva’s first of the league campaign.
Guardiola has asked for more contributions from his men behind Erling Haaland and this is what he received, Jeremy Doku jinking by Ryan Yates and finding De Bruyne to whip into the far corner.
This was all something of a comfort blanket for the home fans who, over the course of Guardiola’s long reign, have become accustomed to fast starts and games won at a canter. Much like the majority of a frightfully bad run of form, City ought to have been out of sight, with Josko Gvardiol squandering two massive chances – heading wide and then skewing the wrong side of the post when clean through.
Guardiola had utilised Nathan Ake as a carrier, allowing Gvardiol to occupy space between Doku and Haaland and Forest – for a while – had no answer. Jack Grealish’s rare outing as a proper central midfielder worked, even throwing himself at Alex Moreno’s shot as a last line of defence.
Despite all that, though, this had threatened to follow the way of the recent past for City. After missed chances comes foolish defending, allowing matches to run away from them. Had Forest capitalised on lapses in concentration, then this may have been a whole different story.
Bernardo Silva has given Man City an eighth minute lead, stabbing home from close range
Jeremy Doku fired Man City into a 3-0 lead early in the second half to make the match safe
Nottingham Forest had chances with Morgan Gibbs-White denied by goalkeeper Stefan Ortega
Chris Wood inexplicably shot wide for the visitors following a dreadful De Bruyne pass
Gvardiol, a chief culprit in defensive calamity, had his pocket picked before Gibbs-White made Stefan Ortega work hard. De Bruyne’s dreadful pass put Chris Wood clean through, the striker inexplicably shooting wide, while Wood and Jota Silva were given half chances.
These were rare lapses by City yet lapses all the same. Those have gone punished over the last month. Not here and the night was done 12 minutes into the second half, Guardiola spinning on his heels, clenching his fists, grinning like we’ve seen so many times before.
Haaland, brutish up front, dropped off, held the ball up and looked for Doku. The Belgian did the rest, Forest backing off in fear of which way the winger darted. Doku saw Haaland but sized up Sels’s far corner, bending beyond the goalkeeper.