“Vamos, vamos!” screamed Rodri in his native Spanish following a 62nd-minute header that seemed to grab a precious victory for Manchester City. But the title chasers’ 2-1 lead lasted only 14 minutes as Phil Foden allowed Elliot Anderson to run off him and the Nottingham Forest midfielder, from range, curled a sublime equaliser beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma that silenced City’s faithful.
Before Anderson’s leveller Erling Haaland was denied a penalty by the referee, Darren England, and the video assistant referee, for a coming together with Matz Sels, the visiting No 1. Bernardo Silva did not agree. “I just watched it,” City’s captain said afterwards. “It’s a penalty. We’re used to it this season, all the 50-50s have gone against us.”
Pep Guardiola, the City manager, added: “It’s our responsibility to do it better, we don’t have to rely on them. Nothing more to say.”
Rodri’s first league goal in 22 months arrived when he rose to head Rayan Aït-Nouri’s corner and came seven minutes after Morgan Gibbs-White cancelled out Antoine Semenyo’s first-half opener. By the close, Guardiola’s men had failed to do what was required to keep the championship in their hands until its May denouement: to win.
City are now seven points behind Arsenal and have 27 to play for, the leaders 24. As Mikel Arteta’s side won at Brighton it is advantage Gunners, though more twists and turns may yet come. As Guardiola said: “Still nine games to play – all together, we will lift each other as we always have.”
The contest pitted the 57 goals (the division’s second highest) of Guardiola’s challengers against the 26 (second lowest) of Vítor Pereira’s relegation battlers. Haaland was back from injury after a one-game absence, Foden recalled for a first league start after being benched for two games, and Nico O’Reilly missing after “feeling uncomfortable” in training, Guardiola said.
Pereira would have been happy to see much of the contest stuck around the middle third. He was aggrieved when Sels’s clearance was hooked into a gift by a long Haaland leg and Cherki was found; then, relieved when Silva was unable to beat the keeper.
The Forest head coach’s gameplan was nothing new when facing City: nick possession, as Nicolas Domínguez did from a dawdling Rodri at halfway, turn those in blue, as he did, and rush forward. Domínguez relayed the ball to Gibbs-White, who curved his run to the left, but the attempt was weak.
Now a goal of class. Rayan Cherki trotted along a right channel, feinted once, twice, and flipped in a cross that was as lethal as Semenyo’s right-booted volley that claimed a seventh goal in 12 City appearances.
Guardiola had a brief celebration, an involved chat (as is his habit) with the fourth official, Thomas Bramall, then looked up and saw Donnarumma save Igor Jesus’s attempt, low to his right.
At the break City led 1-0 but it might have been more. First Foden slipped in Haaland down the left but he could not manoeuvre the ball past Sels. Then Semenyo followed a rapid burst along the same channel with a cross through a crowded goalmouth that demanded but did not receive a toe-poke in.
Guardiola is a self-confessed adorer of Silva and, minutes into the restart, the little wizard showed why. Dazzling feet and snake hips bewitched two or three red-shirted defenders before his wand of a left foot unloaded. Sels dived right and tipped the ball to safety as it headed for the bottom corner.
It was the exact area Gibbs-White found for his strike. Forest’s move could be traced back to a loose pass from Foden that ceded possession. The visitors broke down the right via Ola Aina. The right wing-back scooped the ball to the far post, Jesus headed it back in, and the captain’s slick backheel fooled Rúben Dias and Donnarumma.
A pell-mell finish featured City’s penalty shouts: after Haaland’s, Rodri went over when challenged by Anderson but was also denied. Savinho, with the very last kick, saw Murillo block off the line as Forest hung on for a vital point that keeps them out of the drop zone.
Pereira said: “It is important to come here and prove we can get points everywhere. It is about believing in ourselves.”
