Pep Guardiola was content that Manchester City did so many things right against Nottingham Forest on a rare off-day for Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian had already plundered in 32 goals this season in all competitions, including three against Forest at the Etihad, but missed a sitter and inexplicably fell over looking for a penalty when through on goal. City led 1-0 for 40 minutes but fell apart late on to allow the home side to score a late equaliser that cost the champions two points.
Having moved past Arsenal to the top of the table with a win at the Emirates on Wednesday, City were briefly looking at being able to put clear distance between them and their rivals. Yet the Gunners came back from behind twice to win at Villa Park and the Blues stumbled late on at Forest to see more change at the top of the table.
Also read: City player ratings vs Nottingham Forest
Guardiola accepted that City missed too many chances, not just from Haaland as Phil Foden, Rodri and Aymeric Laporte also missed good opportunities, to win the game. But the coach was happy enough with the performance not to be too downbeat after the game.
"Congratulations to Nottingham Forest for the point they got. It was a brilliant performance, we played really good but at that level you have to score and we didn’t do it and that’s why we dropped points," he said.
"The action for the goal we could defend better, with more energy, but the way we played was brilliant. The first half it should be already 2 or 3-0, we concede one shot on target and we drop points.
"It’s sad, disappointing, but the way we played was really really good. If we missed the chances that we missed it’s because today was not the day to win the game.
"We made the process really well against a team that defended with 9-10 players in the box. We controlled transitions, we created chances from set pieces and we missed the goals from one metre to the goalkeeper, not just one, a few, and yeah we did really well.
"We didn’t score and that’s all, what can I say?"
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