Cherki's late winner at Forest puts Man City top for now

The title hopefuls were made to work hard for the away win.

LOOKING UP: Manchester City's Rayan Cherki celebrates scoring his side's winner, with Erling Haaland. Pic: Barrington Coombs/PA Wire.

Nottingham Forest 1 Manchester City 2 

It was far from fluid, for long spells uncomfortable, but Rayan Cherki’s late strike lifted Manchester City to the Premier League summit – at least for a couple of hours.

Tijani Reijnders had put Pep Guardiola’s team in front three minutes into a thrilling, feisty second half with the game’s first shot on target only for Nottingham Forest to battle their way back through club record signing Omari Hutchinson’s first goal since joining from Ipswich in a €40million move last summer.

Yet Cherki’s drilled attempt six minutes from the end, squirming through the legs of Morgan Gibbs White on route, was enough for a sixth straight win that at the very least ramps the pressure up on Arsenal, who were preparing to host Brighton later on Saturday.

Forest, who paid touching tributes to John Robertson before kick off, can take plenty of positives from such a meaty performance. Under Sean Dyche they have rediscovered a formula that means they must surely pull well clear of the relegation places in the new year.

They upset City’s groove for lengthy portions of this encounter, playing to their strengths while negating many of their visitors’. City, though, displayed no shortage of grit determination – grinding out another win in the style of familiar champions.

Despite an absence of any work for either goalkeeper, the first half was still an absorbing watch. City, unsurprisingly, controlled much of the ball but Forest pressed with a combination of ferocity and smarts to cause Guardiola’s team plenty of concern.

Igor Jesus did a fine job of irritating Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias, with neither visiting centre half allowed to settle in possession, while Morgan Gibbs White and Elliot Anderson were persistently tenacious and unafraid of getting stuck in.

Indeed Forest had the opening period’s best opportunity when, seven minutes in, Callum Hudson-Odoi’s inswinging cross from the left flank evaded both the stretching Jesus and Gibbs White along the six-yard line. Any sort of firm touch would have brought an opener.

At the opposite end City were restricted to a series of blocked shots. Erling Haaland’s only glimpse arrived midway through and his left-footed drive was disrupted by Nikola Milenkovic. Phil Foden twice had shots blocked, while Rayan Cherki also struck harmlessly off target.

Upon the restart, however, both sides appeared to throw any semblance of caution to the wind, helped by City taking the lead less than three minutes in having capitalised on a rare lapse in concentration from Forest’s defence.

Cherki played a neat through ball between Nicolo Savona and Milenkovic with Reijnders peeling behind the latter to receive. He composed himself for a second before firing low past John Victor.

Forest’s goalkeeper, who was brought in for Matz Sels, last season’s Golden Glove winner, made a solid stop to deny Cherki from making it 2-0 soon after – and the importance of that stop would soon be strengthened by Forest’s leveller.

It was a textbook counterattack, executed to perfection. Gibbs White drove forward from the edge of his own penalty area following a rare miscontrol from Reijnders before playing a one-two with Hudson-Odoi on the left flank. Forest’s captain then found Jesus on the left side of City’s box. The centre forward then spotted the unmarked run of Hutchinson and played a well-time cross for the right winger to dispatch first time.

Foden was twice blocked in response – the second occasion by Haaland – but Forest continued to be a force on the break and Savona, in nosebleed territory, skied a glorious opportunity after Gianluigi Donnarumma had parried Anderson’s curling shot.

Haaland, for so long anonymous, fired well over after a knockdown from Nico O’Reilly and Victor made a fine save to keep out Foden.

Yet all of Forest’s creditable work would be overwritten by Cherki’s finish. It emanated from a deep Foden corner that was headed down by Gvardiol and the VAR had little interest in a complaint that Gibbs White had been impeded by O’Reilly before attempting to block.

Nottingham Forest: John Victor 6; Savona 6, Milenkovic 6, Murillo 6, Williams 6; Anderson 7, Dominguez 7 (Awoniyi 87); Hutchinson 7, Gibbs-White 7, Hudson-Odoi 6 (Bakwa 90); Igor Jesus 7. Subs: Sels, Morato, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko.

Manchester City: Donnarumma 6; Nunez 6, Dias 6, Gvardiol 6, O’Reilly 6; Reijnders 7 (Savinho 73), Gonzalez 6, Silva 6; Cherki 7, Foden 6; Haaland 5. Subs: Trafford, Ake, Rodri, Khusanov, McAidoo, Mukasa, Lewis, Heskey.

Ref: R Jones. Att: 30,778.