This team is just an unstoppable force. Manchester City displayed why they are the clear title favorites as despite going down to 10-men and being forced to defend, they still comfortably beat Nottingham Forest 2-0.
So, I think we’re looking at the 4x straight Premier League champions right now.
Manchester City showed how fantastic and resilient their defense is in addition to their blistering, world-famous attack as the beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 to keep their undefeated, 6-point lead atop the Premier League table, even though they had to play half the match with only 10-men. And, like I said, I’m pretty sure Man City are going to run away with the league title if they continue to play like this.
Okay, I really wish I had more to say about the game itself rather than just spew on and on about Manchester City, but this game was over and done with after fifteen minutes.
Within seven minutes, Phil Foden opened the scoring with a sensational side-foot volley off a Rodri cross and Kyle Walker teasing shot. It really was a brilliant goal deserving of being the game winner as Foden showed a masterful foot-eye-coordination to rocket a shot past Matt Turner and into the Forest net.
And, after another spell of City’s unrelenting pressure on Forest, Foden slipped Rodri in behind Moussa Niakhaté and Nuno Tavares in the left-side of Nottingham’s defense, and he crossed a ball straight onto Erling Haaland’s head…who obviously buried the shot into the far corner to send City up 2-0. And that’s pretty much it for City’s offensive output.
Sure, Julian Alvarez had a few half chances prior to halftime, but City really didn’t have too many more “A+” chances in this game given Rodri tried choking out Morgan Gibbs-White immediately after half time to get sent off and drop City down to 10-men. Okay, it’s a little more complicated than how I just described it as both Gibbs-White and Rodri were battling by City’s right corner flag before Gibbs-White gave Rodri an extra shove when the ball went out of play.
And, as you would expect, Rodri answered with a very forceful shove of his own in return.
Then shoves lead to intense standoffs, which then lead to more shoves, and it ended up Rodri putting his hands around Gibbs-White’s throat for half a second to knock him down to the ground and force Anthony Taylor to give Rodri a red card. It really was quite comical to watch these two guys go at it, yet City got the short end of the stick on that one as they had to play the rest of the game down a man and will be without Rodri for the next three matches.
But, luckily for them, their backline of Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, Joško Gvardiol, and keeper Ederson (who got into a few fights with Taiwo Awoniyi) were more than capable of keeping Forest at bay as Nottingham could only finish the match with three shots on target despite having 42% possession (which is AMAZING for a relegation-threatened side to have against City at the Etihad), ten total shots, six corner, and 400+ passes.
So, the game ended in a pretty comfortable 2-0 win for City as they not only managed to ward off any potential banana-peal slip up given the red card, but they also had over 45 minutes to practice in-game defending as two solid banks of five against a competent Premier League team. Oh, and as I said, they now have won six straight games to open the season and are sitting comfortably atop the Premier League with 18 points.
And, as for Forest, they’re not in the worst of situations despite the loss as they currently 11th (but will probably drop a few places after the weekend) and are six points above the relegation zone.
All in all, this was a pretty standard result for City with a really unique and comical way of getting it.
Images Source: Featured Image:
