Manchester City put their recent disastrous spell behind them as they ended a seven-game winless streak by beating Nottingham Forest.
First-half goals from Bernardo Silva and star man Kevin de Bruyne put Pep Guardiola’s side in command by the break, with Jeremy Doku adding a third 12 minutes after the interval.
After six defeats and a 3-3 draw with Feyenoord that must have felt like a loss given City were 3-0 up with 20 minutes left, the delight at successfully reaching the finish line on this occasion was obvious.
It wasn’t perfect from the hosts. There were too many miscontrolled and stray passes for that.
And if Chris Wood had finished – as it felt the whole stadium expected – when he ran clear from De Bruyne’s wayward pass back into his own half instead of rolling the shot wide, Forest would have levelled Silva’s eighth-minute tap-in and home nerves would have frayed.
But De Bruyne struck at the other end almost immediately as he edged away from Doku to find enough space to collect his fellow Belgian’s short pass and apply the perfect finish.
When Doku found the corner with his own excellent strike from the edge of the area to complete City’s joint-biggest margin of victory in the league, in what has turned into a tortuous season, Guardiola’s celebration was one of pure relief.
