Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has endured frustration with Rayan Cherki but says this was a day he wanted to “kiss him” after his match-winning performance against Nottingham Forest.
Cherki has shown flashes of brilliance amid periods of inconsistency for City this season but produced the goods at the City Ground with an 83rd-minute winner in a 2-1 victory.
The France international earlier set up Tijjani Reijnders’ opener which was cancelled out by Omari Hutchinson in a spirited Forest performance.
Guardiola said: “There are moments I shout at him and there are moments I want to kiss him, so I have that ambivalent feeling with him.
“I want to allow him to express his incredible talent. We have to play better from the back so he can get more balls from that position.
“The second half was a little bit better.”
This was a big win for City, who made it six in a row in the Premier League in an ominous warning to their title rivals.
After failing to have a shot on target in the first half, Reijnders’ 48th minute opener was cancelled out by Hutchinson six minutes later.
Forest, remembering European Cup winning winger John Robertson who died on Christmas Day, matched City throughout but were undone by Cherki’s late strike.
City found a way to win a match Guardiola admitted his side would have lost last season.
“I know the memory is weak but when we won the six Premier Leagues, these types of games have a lot, so this is a massive three points,” he said.
“Mainly for the quality of the opposition. Sean Dyche has created a proper team. It’s a top, top side.
“It’s much more important how you suffer and defend and accept you are not playing good and accept you can be better. Otherwise there is no chance. Last season that game is lost 10 for 10.”
Forest boss Dyche felt Morgan Gibbs-White was fouled in the build-up to Cherki’s winner and embarked on a refereeing rant.
“Obviously, we’ve all seen it back. When you played so well to come in and have to talk about officials affecting the game, but they clearly did,” Dyche said.
– How many goals does Erling Haaland need to match Sadio Mane’s Premier League total?- Rayan Cherki winner helps Man City edge Forest- The best teams in Europe right now: Bayern, Arsenal dominate
“Everyone in the stadium and everyone watching at home could see that. Such an easy game to referee, in my opinion, such an easy decision for VAR.
“I can’t work out where football is with that sometimes. I’m big fan of VAR, I can’t work out how you can’t get that right.
“Morgan Gibbs-White quite clearly gets pushed to the floor and the same player is involved in [trying to] blocking the ball.
“But he can’t block it because as he jumps up, it goes through the bit of his body which he would have blocked it with.
“Whichever way you look at it it’s a foul. And then they’ll say, ‘Yeah, the ball wasn’t there.’ And you go, ‘OK, so if the ball’s not near the keeper and you push the keeper to the floor, is that going to be a foul then?.’
“We all know it is. I can’t work it out. And then they score from it, which is the double whammy.”
