Pep Guardiola reveals Man City injury fears after doubling down on Kevin De Bruyne

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola could scarcely contain his relief as Kevin De Bruyne shone in his first start since mid-September, driving the team to a victorious end to their worrying slump.

With a goal and an assist, De Bruyne was the linchpin in City’s triumph, the first win in eight matches, much to the delight of Guardiola, who also had to contend with fresh injury concerns for defenders Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake.

Debunking pundit theories by Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville about friction between him and De Bruyne, Guardiola praised his star player: “I’m so happy for him,” he said. “Last season he was many months injured and this season as well, I’m so happy he’s back. He fought a lot and he’s back with his physicality. The minutes he played at Anfield were really good and then 75 fantastic minutes today.”

Guardiola stressed the importance of the victory for everyone associated with the club but noted that it’s just one hurdle overcome with upcoming challenges ahead: “We needed this, yeah. The club, the players, everyone needed to win, but it’s just one game and in three days we are at Selhurst Park. The problems continue with Manu and Nathan, but we proved what an incredible group of players we have at our disposal.”

On a sombre note, he commented on Ake’s injury, “Nathan doesn’t look good and we’ll see tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest’s Nuno Espírito Santo remained optimistic despite his team’s third loss in four Premier League fixtures.

The Forest boss felt the outcome of the match could have been different if Chris Wood had converted a golden opportunity when the score was 1-0. “That minute is very important,” he said.

“When we lose three-zero and you come away and say it was a good performance, maybe people don’t understand.”

Despite the loss, the manager found positives in the team’s display, saying, “So I will not say it was a bad performance because there were positive things for us in the game. Of course, there are some bad things and mistakes, but we can be proud of ourselves because we tried in this game and that will allow us to grow.”

The match was dominated by De Bruyne, who played a crucial role in City’s opening goal after eight minutes. He headed Ilkay Gundogan’s pull-back towards goal, allowing Bernardo Silva to score from close range.

Although City’s attack improved, their defence still looked shaky, and Stefan Ortega, who started ahead of Ederson, made a crucial save from Morgan Gibbs-White after Forest broke through the champions’ defence. Wood then missed a clear chance for Forest when De Bruyne’s misplaced pass found Ruben Dias, and the Forest striker shot wide when one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

In between these Forest chances, Josko Gvardiol missed an opportunity when played through by Erling Haaland, while De Bruyne also came close to scoring. De Bruyne sealed the win for City with their second goal, his first since August 24, on 31 minutes.

Doku beat Ryan Yates on the left and set up De Bruyne, who had plenty of space inside the penalty box and fired home. Doku sealed the victory at 57 minutes, receiving a pass from Haaland and skilfully manoeuvring past Nikola Milenkovic to score.

De Bruyne was clearly in his element, with Matz Sels denying him a second goal with a clever save.