Manchester City were inspired by Kevin De Bruyne against Nottingham Forest as the Premier League champions roared back to their best.
Goals from De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Jeremy Doku blew Forest away and it’s back to the drawing board for Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Reds did compete in this one. However, chances were missed at free will, with Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White guilty in the first half.
Stuart Pearce praised Forest before kick-off and it’s fair to say that the team’s season won’t be defined by losing to Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola had kind words for Forest ahead of the game but the Reds were perhaps guilty of showing City a little bit too much respect.
De Bruyne admitted afterwards that Forest did something that shocked City at the start of the match and that is at least a bit of a positive.
Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City on the ball during the Premier League match between Manchester City FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Etihad Stadiu...
Photo by Ed Sykes/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images
Kevin De Bruyne shares what stunned Manchester City about Nottingham Forest
De Bruyne was making his first start for City since September and that really didn’t help Forest in this contest.
It was a tough night at the office for the team but De Bruyne did find something interesting with how Forest started the game.
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He told Amazon Prime: “We didn’t expect Nottingham to go man for man. They were going with Nathan Ake so it meant that we had to get Ruben to carry the ball into midfield a little bit.
“It surprised us though, we struggled for a period in the first half after our good start.”
Forest must stay calm
There really is no need to panic from a Forest perspective.
This was a performance that was largely better than the two previous performances at the Etihad Stadium and these things do take time.
Forest are still firmly on the right path and it’s hard to imagine that there are too many players feeling overly down about this one tonight.
Nuno Espirito Santo will keep striving for results to come the way of Forest and now they must remain positive ahead of another trip to Manchester to play United.
All is not lost and listening to De Bruyne, it’s clear that Forest are capable of causing problems for teams this season.