Pep Guardiola lost his rag with the match officials - but then accepted his players were to blame for the kind of result that costs titles.
The Manchester City boss flew into a rage on the touchline over referee Graham Scott’s performance and was booked for voicing his opinion too strongly after claiming the champions should have had a penalty for Joe Worrall’s tug on Erling Haaland's shirt.
But after cooling his temper, Guardiola accepted the result was down to City’s failure to kill off Steve Cooper’s battling Forest.
The visitors had 84 per cent of the ball in the first half, but Bernardo Silva’s thunderbolt was the only goal they had to show for their dominance.
After the break, Haaland, Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte all missed chances that any team with designs on finishing top just have to take.
And then, six minutes from time, Forest substitute Chris Wood floored City with a sucker punch equaliser that sent the City Ground into a frenzy.
It’s the third time this season the Blues have dropped points to a team that managed just one effort on target.
After going top of the table by beating Arsenal in midweek, Guardiola’s men are once again looking up at the Gunners.
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Guardiola said: “We dropped points because we didn’t score more - and we could have also defended with more energy for their goal.
“The way we played was brilliant. We should have been 3-0 up at half-time but then we conceded one shot on target and dropped points.
“We had a good victory at Arsenal. Today we played even better against a team that defended with nine players in their box.
“But when you miss so many chances just one metre from the goal…what can I say?
“After games like that, you don’t say anything to the players. You just go home and go to sleep and think about the next game.”
Next up is a trip to RB Leipzig in the Champions League. Guardiola will hope the kit man packs some shooting boots.
City virtually had the run of Nottingham in the opening half - but the home side never once waved the white flag.
Rodri headed a glorious chance wide and Ilkay Gundogan also went close.
Then, four minutes before the break, Silva marched onto Grealish’s short pass and bludgeoned a 25-yard shot over the head of Forest keeper Keylor Navas and into the roof of the net.
Cooper insisted: “I’m disappointed with VAR because there was a clear foul on Joe Worrall.
“For me VAR has let the referee down.”
Navas could have done better - but how the Costa Rican made up for it after half-time.
Foden, sent clear by Gundogan, should have doubled City’s lead but slipped and then failed to find Haaland with a pass that would have given the striker a tap-in.
Laporte headed De Bruyne’s corner straight at Navas from inside the six-yard box.
And Guardiola’s fraying nerves snapped in the 65th minute when he was booked for his theatrical reaction to Worrall’s challenge on Haaland.
He said: “Why would Erling fall down when he’s one-against-one with the keeper?
“Maybe it would have been soft, maybe not, but that was why I was complaining to the fourth official - and I got a deserved yellow card.”
Guardiola’s mood darkened further when Navas fumbled Foden’s shot and Haaland bounced one rebound off the crossbar before blazing the loose ball over an open goal.
Cooper sent on Wood with 11 minutes remaining and the New Zealand striker on-loan from Newcastle smuggled himself in a the far post to score after Brennan Johnson and Morgan White-Gibbs had produced Forest’s first move of any quality.
It was as vital to Forest as it was devastating to City.
Cooper said: “We put a plan in place to stay in it for as long as we could.
“City are probably the best team in the world at domestic level, but we wanted that one moment to get in - and it was a great goal.”
