Man City blow up to give Arsenal and Premier League rivals hope again

Manchester City are back. In second place.

For 84 minutes it looked as though Pep Guardiola's resurgent side were steamrollering their way to the top of the Premier League again, completely dominating a game to the point that it looked as though it wouldn't matter that they had missed enough good chances to repeat their 6-0 victory in the return fixture. But one, late switch-off allowed Forest to equalise from nowhere and put another different spin on a title race that has become dizzying.

It is staggering that not two weeks have passed since City lost poorly to Tottenham and yet went one bounce of the Aston Villa goalkeeper's head of moving two points clear of Arsenal. As it was, the Gunners are galvanised and can take as much heart from the fact that a City side that looked back to their cold-blooded title-winning best have slipped up again.

Also read: City player ratings vs Nottingham Forest

While Puma would probably dispute the colour descriptions, it was fitting that Guardiola's team - sporting Bernardo Silva again at left-back and Phil Foden back making his first start since the derby - wore their third kit of yellow-and-black stripes. The visitors swarmed all over the red shirts in front of them straight from the off, taking the sting out of a boisterous home crowd looking to give their team any advantage they could.

Jack Grealish and Ilkay Gundogan both had efforts blocked on the edge of the six-yard box in the opening ten minutes, while Kyle Walker did well to sweep up any attempted counters. With the first Forest centre-back booked not long after for a late lunge on Grealish, it looked as though the game was there for City to take.

Despite a whopping 86 per cent possession in the first half, and plenty of