We probably would have expected a result like this but we would not have predicted it to come about in quite this way.
Nottingham Forest were full of energy and menace and ambition, while Manchester City were probably as sluggish and out of sorts as we have seen them for some time.
City won, though, and did so with something to spare in the end. And why? Because Forest centre forward Chris Wood made the art of scoring goals look desperately difficult while Erling Haaland arrived as a substitute to make it look so devastatingly easy.
There was a little more to it than that. There usually is. But Wood’s ham-fisted failure to convert two straightforward chances with the score at 1-0 cost Forest dearly.
With City lacking their usual control of a game and Forest sensing that, you would not have bet against the home team had they entered the final third of the game on level terms. But they could not quite make it happen.
Haaland, meanwhile, scored an achingly beautiful goal. With Wood — a striker of no little experience — snatching like a juvenile at his chances, all anxiety and uncertainty, Haaland did not look like a man who had scored in only two games since the start of March.
The Norwegian seemed to slip in to that dreamlike state of certainty and relaxation that all elite athletes yearn for as he drifted through with 19 minutes to go to seal the victory. It was centre forward play at its best.
So despite all the drama of this wonderful title race, Pep Guardiola’s City remain in charge and in control of all the vital statistics. If they win their next four games — Wolves at home, away to Fulham and Spurs, West Ham at home — they will win the Premier League title for the fourth consecutive year. That, as we know, has never been
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