Nottingham Forest 1-2 Manchester City: Rayan Cherki winner sends City top of Premier League

Rayan Cherki scored a late winner at Nottingham Forest to keep Manchester City in touch with leaders Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.

The hosts threatened to deal a major blow to City’s title hopes after Omari Hutchinson canceled out Tijjani Reijnders’ opener in the second half.

But Cherki struck late to maintain City’s worrying form – they have now won their last eight games in all competitions.

For struggling Forest, who paid a moving tribute to club legend John Robertson, it will be a tough defeat to take and they slipped to successive defeats for the first time under Sean Dyche, following their 1-0 reverse at Fulham on Monday.

Forest frustrated City in the first half with Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic outstanding, but their resistance was broken just three minutes into the second half when Reijnders headed past John Victor.

Yet it was Reijnders who lost the ball on the edge of his own penalty area six minutes later for Morgan Gibbs-White to break and find Igor Jesus, who set a record by setting up Hutchinson for his first Forest goal.

Before that, City briefly sensed a crucial second when John Victor turned Cherki’s strike towards the post, before his smart save prevented Phil Foden from restoring City’s lead.

But the Forest goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent Cherki from finding the corner in the 83rd minute from the edge of the area.