Chris Wood’s equaliser six minutes from time for Nottingham Forest punctured Manchester City’s title bid and left Arsenal top after a dizzying day at the Premier League summit.
A blistering Bernardo Silva strike gave Pep Guardiola’s side a 1-0 halftime lead as they looked to build on a superb 3-1 win at Emirates Stadium in midweek.
But Erling Haaland and Phil Foden were among the culprits as City wasted a host of second-half chances, leaving substitute Wood to convert Morgan Gibbs-White’s cross for a first Forest goal since his January move from Newcastle.
Arsenal have a two-point advantage at the top with a game in hand on City, a situation that looked utterly implausible when they entered injury time at 2-2 in the early Saturday kickoff at Aston Villa before running out 4-2 winners.
Nottingham Forest vs. Man City live score
1H 2H Final
NOT 0 1 1
MCI 1 0 1
Goals:
MCI — Bernardo Silva (Jack Grealish) — 41st minute
NOT — Chris Wood (Morgan Gibbs-White) — 84th minute
Foden was restored to Pep Guardiola’s starting lineup and to the fore during the opening stages. He darted into a pocket of space on the left hand side of the Forest area in the eighth minute to set up Grealish for a chance to add to his Emirates Stadium strike, only for Worrall to have other ideas.
Rodri headed wastefuly wide from a Kevin De Bruyne cross after the half hour before Silva, starting again in the unfamiliar position of left-back, took centre-stage. First the Portugal international ripped a long-range shot just past the top-right corner before, from a similar range, leaving Navas grasping at air.
Forest were indebted to the former Real Madrid and PSG goalkeeper after the interval, with a point-blank save from an Aymeric Laporte header and a full-length dive to keep an Ilkay Gundogan free-kick out of the top corner standing out among a fine body of work.
Navas should have been left with no chance when Foden streamed through on goal and lost his footing, seemingly in two minds over whether to pass to Haaland.
It was scarcely believable when, after Navas spilt a blistering Foden shot in the 68th minute, Haaland hit the crossbar from the rebound and then blasted his second attempt at an empty net into orbit.
All those let-offs saw belief grow inside a raucous City Ground and Wood was the Forest — and Arsenal — hero when the livewire Brennan Johnson darted into the box to feed Gibbs-White, whose delivery under pressure was exemplary, leaving the former Burnley striker with a finish even simpler than some of those City passed up.
How many shots on target did Nottingham Forest have against Manchester City?
One. Wood’s tap-in. That’s it.
It was a tale of total statistical domination from Guardiola’s side, apart from in the statistical category that matters most. City had 23 shots overall to Forest’s four and hogged 73.3% of possession.
This was not sterile domination, either. In some of the games where City have dropped points this season, they have been utterly listless. But they played at a pleasing tempo in possession throughout here.
This felt more like the sort of game where they have erred in previous seasons and the type of situation Haaland was supposed to offer insurance against. He’s human, you know.
A first time strike from Bernardo Silva.
Kevin De Bruyne struggles mirror City’s inconsistency
It’s entirely plausible that City finish this season with Haaland breaking the Premier League scoring record, De Bruyne breaking the Premier League assist record and them finishing the campaign empty handed.
De Bruyne’s pass to tee up Haaland in north London in midweek was his 12th assist of 2022/23. He also opened the scoring and produced a typical big-game display. But it remains hard to say he is having one of his better seasons.
The Belgium star fired off the most shots of any City player on Saturday with seven. Only one extended Navas and some were horribly wayward. He still created four opportunities for teammates, a figure only bettered by Jack Grealish (five), but he will not look back on this match with any fondness.
Erling Haaland shackled by Felipe and Joe Worrall
Injuries to first-choice central defenders Scott McKenna and Willy Boly understandably left Forest fearing the worst against a side who beat them 6-0 in August. Haaland scored a hat-trick that day. But club captain Joe Worral and Felipe were superb, each making a game-high 10 clearances over the course of the contest.
Worrall pushed the limit with his lunging tackle on Grealish to earn a booking and it would not have been unfair to see City run out 3-0 or 4-0 winners. Nevertheless, it was hard to begrudge Forest’s unrelenting defensive commitment being rewarded as they made it eight Premier League home games unbeaten.
Nottingham Forest vs. Man City live updates, highlights from the Premier League
Note: This article is taken from sportingnews.com
