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Manchester City were excellent in the 3-0 but a few cracks still showed with this imperfect side.
That was mainly down to injuries, an issue which has crippled City’s season. With Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake now set to miss the trip to Crystal Palace, and an ill Phil Foden also a doubt, it did somewhat take the shine off the win.
It’s a real shame, and following the run of seven without a win, the confident victory over Forest should only have evoked positive emotions in the immediate aftermath. Kevin De Bruyne - starting for the first time in nearly three months - was outstanding, Jack Grealish impressed in midfield, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan looked back to their old selves and for the first time this season three players scored in a Premier League match.
Erling Haaland was among the goals but the Norwegian enjoyed a superb performance on Wednesday night, creating two superb chances with through balls in behind. Unusually, Haaland actually helped City retain the ball - as stats of 67 percent possession indicated.
On the ball, this is the City we’re used to. Out of possession was another story, however. “They play really good and we concede transitions because still the easy things we miss it,” was Guardiola’s downbeat assessment in the press conference.
“We lost some passes. In general, the most important thing today was to break this routine to not win games. Finally we won but you have to continue.”
City’s inability to deal with counter attacks and penchant for committing defensive errors has been a recurring theme this season, and even in such a positive performance it was notable how many mistakes occurred. Josko Gvardiol allowed Anthony Elanga to get past him and set up Morgan Gibbs-White for a first-half effort, Akanji was flattened by Jota Silva and then Ilkay Gundogan was booked for stopping a Forest breakaway. It was very good, not quite excellent from City.
But it was De Bruyne, the star man on the night, who made the biggest error. After half an hour he misjudged a pass back to Ruben Dias, instead laying it perfectly into Chris Wood’s path. Only Mohamed Salah and Haaland have more league goals this season than the Forest forward, so there was astonishment that he fired wide when facing Stefan Ortega one-on-one.
An immediate on-field inquest involving De Bruyne, Akanji and Dias convened. Gundogan, acting as peacemaker, cooled the heated debate, something which has happened with surprising frequency in recent games.
Regardless, that Ortega had to come flying out of his goal in such a panic is a worry, plus he had to be on hand to deny Gibbs-White, Elanga and Elliot Anderson. That explains why Nuno Espirito Santo was relatively positive after the game.
“When you lose 3-0 and you say it was a good performance, maybe people don’t understand,” he opined. “So I won’t say it was a bad performance because there are positive things for us in the game. We had chances. We didn’t achieve and we lost. But us, internally, I think we come out proud of ourselves because we tried.”
That perhaps sums up where City are at and, even on a positive night, there were still a few moments that highlighted the flaws that now exist in this imperfect team.
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