Man City keep pressure up in title race after victory at Nottingham Forest

Pep Guardiola's side close gap on Gunners as Bournemouth move into top 10 with win against Brighton

Manchester City's Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring their second goal in the 2-0 Premier League win against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Sunday, April 28, 2024. PA

Manchester City's Erling Haaland scores their second goal. Reuters

Erling Haaland of Manchester City celebrates scoring his team's second. Getty Images

Manchester City's Josko Gvardiol, third right, celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal. PA

Manchester City's Josko Gvardiol, second left, scores their opening goal. PA

Nottingham Forest's Ola Aina, left, goalkeeper Matz Sels and Chris Wood react after Josko Gvardiol scored for Manchester City. PA

Manchester City's goalkeeper Ederson receives medical attention after a collision with Nottingham Forest's Willy Boly. AP

Manchester City's Jack Grealish reacts after being fouled. AFP

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland started the game on the bench. AFP

Manchester City kept up the pressure in the Premier League title battle as they beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 to move to within a point of leaders Arsenal.

Pep Guardiola's men, who triumphed at the City Ground thanks to goals from Josko Gvardiol and substitute Erling Haaland, who was returning from a muscle injury, are just a point adrift of the Gunners with a game in hand.

Gvardiol opened the scoring for the defending champions in the 32nd minute as he headed in Kevin De Bruyne's corner as Forest were down to 10 men following an injury to Neco Williams,

The home side squandered plenty of chances, with Chris Wood particularly wasteful in the box.

Jack Grealish made way for Haaland in the 62nd minute and it didn't take long for the Norwegian to add to his tally to 32 goals as he collected a lovely pass from De Bruyne and finished superbly after wrong-footing the Forest defence.

After the game Haaland told Sky Sportrs: "Its an important win, it does not matter how we do it, and it is good to be back.

"We knew it was going to be a fight, and the pitch was not the easiest to play on but we cannot complain, it is about winning and that is exactly what we did."

Guardiola said when asked about the pressure of a tight title battle: "The pressure is how you play. If you play good and control the game then people say you don't feel the pressure, if you play bad people say you feel the pressure.

"In certain moments we suffered. We were lucky today the pitch was so dry, because the chances they missed that was the reason why. We were lucky today that the pitch was in these conditions."

Forest boss Nuno Espírito Santo said: "We played a good game, were compact, organised and had chances. We did a good job regarding how hard it is to play against Manchester City, and the players gave it a big go. With this attitude, we will achieve what we want.

"We are disappointed with the result, the encouragement comes from the way we work, how committed we are, and what we have ahead of us. This is more important. We stay positive and we go for the next three games."

There was some bad news for City goalkeeper Ederson left the City Ground with his left arm in a sling after coming off at half time following his collision with Willy Boly.

Meanwhile, Marcos Senesi, Enes Unal and Justin Kluivert scored to lift Bournemouth into the top half of the Premier League with a 3-0 victory against Brighton at the Vitality Stadium.

The win meant that the Cherries surpassed their record points total in the top flight, overtaking the 46 they collected under Eddie Howe in 2016/17.

Andoni Iraola's side took the lead after 13 minutes when Senesi headed home following a Lewis Cook corner.

Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi made seven changes to his line-up following the 4-0 drubbing by Manchester City on Thursday but it didn't change the outcome.

Dutch winger Kluivert played a part in the second on 52 minutes, making a mazy run before finding Dango Ouattara down the left.

Ouattara’s cross from the byline was met by a towering header from Udal, sending the ball back across goal and beyond the dive of Bart Verbruggen.

Kluivert also had the last word with a fine left-footed finish.

Bournemouth defender Adam Smith told Sky Sports: "It is the most talented group we've had here in years. It is a great result and amazing to beat our points total, that was our aim.

"[Iraola] has been amazing. It was a transition when he first came in and we struggled in first 10 games to get a grip on how he wanted to play. As soon as we got to grips with it we went on a run and haven't looked back since. He's done a great job."