Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 on Sunday – and pundit Ashley Williams believed one player was looking ominously ‘sharp’.
Pep Guardiola‘s side responded to Arsenal beating Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the day to keep up the pressure on the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta’s side ran out 3-2 winners, which placed extra importance on City‘s game with Forest. But City did well, although they rode their luck at times.
Forest actually had more attempts at goal than City, but the champions were ultimately more clinical. Josko Gvardiol opened the scoring with a bullet header in the first-half, and then Erling Haaland came off the bench to notch his 21st Premier League goal of the season.
Haaland had missed City’s two games against Chelsea in the FA Cup and Brighton, but was back on the bench on Sunday and then came on just after the hour mark – and Ashley Williams noted him as ‘the difference’ between the two teams…
Ashley Williams hails ‘sharp’ Erling Haaland as Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest
With Haaland not quite fit enough to start, Julian Alvarez led the line for City for the first hour of the game.
The Argentine did a decent job, but didn’t have too many chances.
It was actually Forest who were threatening more, and Chris Wood should perhaps have scored a couple of goals. City rode their luck, but then took their chances when they came.
Gvardiol’s header was brilliant, and impressed Shay Given, and then Haaland, 23, came on and did what he does best.
He collected a pass from Kevin De Bruyne, shifted the ball away from Forest defender Murillo before finding the far corner with his weak foot.
It was an encouraging showing from the big Norwegian, as he came short and made runs in behind. There did not appear to be any signs of rust, and he came in for praise on Match of the Day 2 from Williams.
He said: “He looked sharp today. This is the difference, De Bruyne checks his shoulder, knows he can turn, great movement from Haaland, and then he now looks… you’re backing him. As soon as he receives that, we’ve seen this many a time. He just creates a bit of separation between him and Murillo, squares him up, rocks him and then goes on his right foot.
“That is finishing with conviction, as we have seen so many times.”
After the game, Alan Shearer took to X to say that no one should ever be doubting a player as lethal as Haaland.
Haaland cameo v Forest was encouraging
After two games out, it was always going to be interesting to see what Haaland could do coming off the bench – and he looked great.
The number nine didn’t show any signs of rust or lethargy, and took his goal really well. Even if Murillo was struggling a bit at that point with an injury.
That’s 32 goals in all competitions now for Haaland, which is an amazing return even if he hasn’t quite been at his very best this term.
He looked delighted at the end of the game yesterday as he went around congratulating his teammates, and he was giving off the impression that he is pumped for these remaining ‘finals’ as he referred to them on Instagram a few days ago.