Rayan Cherki scored one goal and set up another as Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 at the City Ground. The win meant Pep Guardiola stayed unbeaten against Sean Dyche in the Premier League, with 15 wins and two draws.
Before the match, Forest honoured club legend John Robertson, who had recently passed away, with a minute of applause. The home team started brightly and nearly scored when Callum Hudson-Odoi crossed for Morgan Gibbs-White, but he just missed the ball. It was a quiet first half, with Forest defending well and stopping City from creating chances. Neither team had a shot on target before half-time.
City took the lead just three minutes into the second half. Tijjani Reijnders ran onto a clever pass from Cherki and calmly scored. Cherki then went close to scoring himself, but Forest goalkeeper John Victor saved his shot.
Forest showed good spirit and equalised after some neat passing. Hudson-Odoi and Gibbs-White helped move the ball to Igor Jesus, who pulled it back for Omari Hutchinson to score his first goal for the club.
The match looked set to end level, but Cherki decided it late on. A corner was headed back to him and he fired a low shot into the net to win the game for City.
The victory was City’s eighth in a row in all competitions and briefly sent them to the top of the league. Forest stayed just one place above the relegation zone.
