It all seemed so sedate for Manchester City against Nottingham Forest. They were two goals ahead and Rodri, the man who makes them tick in midfield, was his cerebral self until he erupted with anger to get sent off for violent conduct within 60 seconds of the second half beginning.
City had one player fewer for nearly an entire half but the result was never in doubt thanks to goals from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland. It will, however, leave Pep Guardiola to ponder the cost of losing Rodri for three matches, including a trip to Arsenal.
“Hopefully Rodri will learn,” Guardiola said, confirming that the Spaniard had apologised to his teammates. “The game was perfect [for] 35 minutes, both teams tried and after that it became a little bit chaotic. That wasn’t our responsibility, that’s for sure.
“But Rodri had to control himself and his emotions. Because I can get a yellow card but Rodri can’t get a yellow card – I don’t play. The guys who were inside [the pitch], you have to be careful.”
By the time Foden cannoned Kyle Walker’s knock-back, aided by a clever Rodri pass, into the bottom corner in the seventh minute, Forest had touched the ball twice and one of those was a Matt Turner save from a Julián Álvarez free-kick.
Steve Cooper had set his team up with a flat back five behind four midfielders to try to stop the hosts scoring and they did not come close to answering the many questions posed by City’s domination of possession. There were 46 passes in the buildup to the opener, the second-most since records began in 2005.
Despite the fact there were always 10 men behind the ball, Forest’s attempts at resistance were beyond futile. Smart play between Foden and Matheus Nunes allowed the Portuguese to chip the ball to the back post for an unmarked Haaland to head home his eighth league goal of the campaign. Considering Forest had three centre-backs on the pitch to leave Haaland by himself was unforgivable, but the team as a whole could not cope with City’s speed and movement. The classic battle of blue against red gave the impression of a Subbuteo match, aided by the static nature of the Forest defence.
“A really poor start,” Cooper said. “We know the level of the challenge against City here. It doesn’t get any tougher. But if you look at the two goals, it’s great quality but they are typical City goals. We planned for that, a repeated tactic, but to let it happen so easily is disappointing. I wanted them to score with real difficulty.”
Guardiola was annoyed by Anthony Taylor, saying he “changed the game”. The referee was the busiest man inside the Etihad, handing out 11 yellow cards including one for the City manager – seven of them to Forest players – in addition to the solitary red.
City were in control but Taiwo Awoniyi broke away and was adjudged to be fouled by Manuel Akanji. The centre-back and his manager were cautioned, the latter for complaining to the officials that Willy Boly had committed a similar foul without being rebuked by Taylor. “It’s not fair,” Guardiola said. “Why is this action not a yellow card and the other one is? I ask the officials to give me the reason why and they don’t give me a reason.”
The booking did not deter Guardiola who continued to berate the fourth official, Dean Whitestone. He might be in charge of a side with a perfect record this season but that does not calm his view on injustice against his team and it perhaps set the tone on the pitch at the same time.
There was a sense of complacency within the City ranks after the second went in. Sloppy mistakes were made, much to Guardiola’s annoyance.
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To make up for the slack nature of the final stages of the first half, City came out fired up, none more so than Rodri who was soon back in the dressing room after being sent off for an altercation with Morgan Gibbs-White. There was some pushing, shoving and head-to-head action, ending in mild farce when Gibbs-White threw himself to the ground after being grabbed around the neck. Taylor deemed it worthy of a sending off and VAR saw no reason to disagree after a lengthy review.
The second half was aggressive and scrappy, not a situation City are often in but they were composed enough to deal with the situation. Cooper sent on the pace of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga as he looked to perform death by a thousand crosses on City but they easily held firm, with Ederson finally tested in the 95th minute to no avail as the hosts continued their perfect start.
