Rayan Cherki sent Manchester City back to the top of the Premier League with his late winner at Nottingham Forest.
The hosts threatened to deliver a blow to City’s title hopes after Omari Hutchinson cancelled out Tijjani Reijnders’ second-half opener.
But Cherki struck late to continue City’s ominous form – they have now won their past eight games in all competitions.
For struggling Forest, who paid an emotional tribute to club legend John Robertson, it will be a hard defeat to take and they have slipped to successive losses under Sean Dyche for the first time, following their 1-0 reverse at Fulham on Monday.
Forest frustrated City in the first half with Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic exceptional, but their resistance was broken just three minutes into the second half when Reijnders steered past John Victor.
Yet it was Reijnders who lost the ball on the edge of his own penalty area six minutes later for Morgan Gibbs-White to break and find Igor Jesus, who teed up record signing Hutchinson for his first Forest goal.
Before that, City briefly sensed a crucial second when John Victor turned Cherki’s drive on to the post, before his smart save stopped Phil Foden restoring City’s lead.
But the Forest keeper could do nothing to keep out Cherki’s 83rd-minute drive when he found the corner from the edge of the box.
