Can we just hear it for Nottingham Forest, please? Sure, Manchester City continued their plummet from Premier League title winners to scrambling for Champions League qualification, but the achievements of Nuno Espírito Santo’s team deserve full recognition.
Callum Hudson-Odoi scored the winning goal seven minutes from time to enhance Forest’s hold on third place, four points clear of City, as the team who finished 17th last season deservedly overcame the side who were claiming their fourth successive title back then. If ever there was a game that epitomised both clubs’ seasons, this was it.
Pep Guardiola’s team have gained only one point from their last eight games against teams starting the day in the top four. But they were outfoxed by a Forest side who, having held Arsenal here 10 days ago, thrived from their counterattacking platform in the second half to extend their unbeaten home run to eight games. They have lost only twice here in the league all season. After this first league win over City in 28 years, Forest deserve to be where they are.
The goal was magnificent in its own right, in both the assist and the finish. Firstly, the cross-field pass from Morgan Gibbs-White to the winger was a thing of beauty. Thomas Tuchel, the new England head coach, has already been visiting the City Ground to see his talents but this had the feeling of a callup-confirming moment. The Forest captain knew exactly what he wanted to do when turning on to the ball to the left of the centre circle. But knowing and doing are not always synonymous.
Gibbs-White looked up and dispatched a switch of consummate accuracy. With chalk on his boots out on the opposite wing, Hudson-Odoi simply had to trap the ball on the bounce and then go at Josko Gvardiol with purpose. Faking to step inside, he stayed out and, well into the penalty area, side-footed a shot inside Ederson’s near post.
Guardiola refused to put any blame on his goalkeeper. “It is what it is, we can’t blame a player,” the City manager said. “I prefer to praise than blame. It happens in football.”
Guardiola had by this stage told Jack Grealish to get warmed up and then to sit down again. Should Chelsea beat Leicester on Sunday, City will be fifth after five defeats from their last nine games.
It was no surprise that City dominated possession but for the first time in recent memory the away fans also out-sang their usually vociferous hosts in the opening half when Forest, unchanged from the side that held Arsenal goalless here 10 days ago, were content to sit and defend in a low block.
Forest did not give much else away in a cagey first half in which City saw twice as much of the ball. The teams were united in the third minute when chants of “Psycho” rang around the whole stadium in wishing good health to Stuart Pearce, the legendary Forest left-back who played and managed both these clubs, who has been in hospital after suffering a medical emergency on a flight from the US.
Nuno is seldom unhappy with a goalless first half as it allows his team’s counterattacking capabilities to come to the fore. Sure enough, as the game opened up after the interval, the City Ground came to life, with Forest’s hopes and tails up.
“There was a moment when the game stretched, and became more like a game of basketball,” Nuno said, with a glint in his eye, when asked if he recognised he had outfoxed Guardiola. “That was a good moment for us.”
Nicolás Domínguez attempted to unleash his inner Marco van Basten with a volley from an acute angle to the right of goal from Anthony Elanga’s cross. Ederson saved that effort comfortably enough and the City goalkeeper produced a brilliant moment to tip Hudson-Odoi’s shot on to the post with the game still goalless.
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Guardiola had been doing his best Basil Fawlty impression on the touchline as Hudson-Odoi sprinted away, the Forest winger racing from his own half and into the City area before cutting back inside on to his right foot.
But if the City manager was jumping up and down on the spot, throwing his outstretched fingers to his head at that, then he was at his wits’ end when Hudson-Odoi broke the deadlock seven minutes from time. Now there was no doubt whose fans were the loudest.
