Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest to make it six wins from six despite Rodri red card

Manchester City maintained their 100 per cent Premier League record thanks to first-half goals from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola's side were in total control after a scintillating first-half performance that saw England attacker Foden finishing off a tremendous team move before Haaland headed home his eighth goal in six games.

But what looked like being a routine win – and potential repeat of last season's 6-0 win in the same fixture – was made more complicated when Rodri was sent off just after half-time.

The Portuguese midfielder, who had played a key role in Foden's opener, was shown a red card for violent conduct by referee Anthony Taylor after putting his hands round the neck of Morgan Gibbs-White.

The Forest attacker then produced a delayed reaction before going down theatrically near the corner flag holding his throat, with VAR later upholding Taylor's decision.

Guardiola sacrificed Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez, replacing them with defensive players in Kalvin Phillips and Nathan Ake.

And those changes paid off as Forest, despite making several attacking substitutions, failed to seriously trouble Ederson in the City goal until the Brazilian saved from Anthony Elanga in injury-time.

The victory moved City five points clear of Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Arsenal at the top of the table, with all three playing on Sunday.

“An exceptional game in the first half,” said Guardiola. “Exceptional game in the second for our resilience and our work because we played, I would say, 51/52 minutes ten against eleven so it was not easy but we were fantastic.

BRITAIN SOCCER

“I thought the way we played in the first half was amazing so against a difficult side for the