Man City 2 Nottm Forest 0
Pep Guardiola’s side have been in impressive form this season, maintaining a 100% start to the campaign, as they welcomed Nottingham Forest to The Etihad Stadium. The visitors still have more European Cups than Man City, something the away fans were sure to remind them.
Matheus Nunes made his debut for Man City after his late transfer from Wolves. The hosts started on the front foot and Haaland earned them a free kick a few yards outside the box. Alvarez stepped and struck it, drawing the first save out of Turner in the visitors’ goal.
Rodri then played a great ball into the back post, finding the run of Walker, who cushioned it well into the path of Foden. The City midfielder struck the ball into the ground, giving the Forest keeper no chance of keeping it out, putting Pep’s side one-nil up.
Gareth Southgate was in the crowd for the game, no doubt checking the form of Kalvin Phillips sat on the City bench once again. Man City did not take their foot off the gas and as Nunes got to the byline, he floated one straight onto the head of Haaland who made it two-nil to the defending champions.
Credit: @ManCity
They almost made it three when Doku cut in from the left and fed it to Alvarez who took one touch and shot but the sliding challenge from the Forest defender managed to protect the visitor’s goal.
Many people have said how Rodri is one of the best defensive midfielders the Premier League has ever seen. No doubt these comments were coming from City fans as the Spaniard has barely been in the league long enough for such claims, it would be easy to name five off the top of your head that rank above him.
One thing is for sure, with the second half only just started, he proved that he does the best Homer Simpson impressions in the league. As Morgan Gibbs-White and the midfielder had a coming together in the corner, Rodri decided to strangle him like his favourite Simpsons character.
Anthony Taylor felt he had seen enough of the incident and immediately produced a red card, not even a VAR review could save the Man City man. All of a sudden, the league leaders were down to ten men. Fans close to the incident said they heard Rodri say ‘why you little….’ as he grabbed the Forest midfielder.
You could be forgiven for wondering whether the half-time drinks in the Man City dressing room had been laced with PCP when Awoniyi went through and lifted the ball over Ederson. His touch was too heavy and the ball went well over the bar but Ederson immediately thrust his head into the striker’s face and started screaming obscenities at him.
The replay showed nothing for the Brazilian keeper to get upset about but the referee saw fit to show both players a yellow card for their troubles. Things were starting to reach boiling point in Manchester, like Forest had snapped up some Oasis CDs in the centre circle at half-time.
Credit: @premierleague
Foden continued to cause problems for the visitors on the break but with the one-man advantage, Forest started to ask a lot more questions of Pep Guardiola’s side in the second half. Ake managed to find Haaland at the back post but the Norwegian could not adjust his feet quick enough and volleyed over the bar.
Ederson made a great save down to his left to deny Elanga who struck a wonderful volley into the bottom corner. Great reaction save from the Man City keeper, even more so if he was still feeling the effects of the half-time PCP dose.
Man City took all three points and kept their 100% record in the league, the red card of Rodri may cause them some problems in the following three games however. Pep Guardiola will have the chance to play Gareth Southgate’s favourite player, Kalvin Phillips, to fill the hole in the forthcoming games.
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