Manchester City got back to winning ways on Wednesday night with a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest to end their winless streak, and it looked seemingly to be down to the return of one man: Kevin De Bruyne.
Pep Guardiola has been keeping careful with the Belgian’s fitness in recent weeks, only risking him from the bench of late, but De Bruyne’s long-awaited restoration to the matchday XI appeared to have achieved the desired effect as Man City looked much more like their dominant selves.
Starting his first game in nearly three months, the midfield maestro created Bernardo Silva’s opening goal in just the eighth minute and scored a powerful strike for the second around the half-hour mark, as well as helping keep the tempo ticking throughout the game.
The 33-year-old unsurprisingly picked up the Man of the Match award following his impressive return to the starting lineup, being met with a standing ovation when was taken off in the 74th minute. You watch back his emphatic moment of the night here:
Netting not only his first goal since August but helping finally break the Blues’ winless run (seven losses, one draw prior to the Forest win), De Bruyne‘s full return was desperately needed both for the team and the fans.
For all the talk of Rodri’s injury having killed City’s form, and the 2024 Ballon D’or winner’s absence has certainly been felt immensely by those around the club, KDB’s contribution came as the right tonic and just at the right time.
The increase in creativity and goal threat also looked to translate to the forwards, with a total of 17 shots created and Jérémy Doku getting himself on the scoresheet for the third and final finish at the death.
At the other end of the pitch, Guardiola‘s men also managed to keep their first clean sheet since 26 October and with every game now a must-win if they are to stand even the slimmest chance of catching Arne Slot’s high-flying Scousers, regaining their levels at both ends of the pitch is crucial.
Speaking after the game, the number 17 thanked the fan for turning up to the Etihad Stadium on what was a very grim and rainy night in Manchester; he also went to confess that whilst it’s been a difficult period for him personally, he was just happy to get past 70 minutes and hopefully shift the “momentum”.
De Bruyne gave an uplifted but honest interview after ending a seven-game streak without a win for City.
De Bruyne’s performance saw plenty hopping on social media to once again proclaim not just the best midfielder in English football but “the greatest player” full stop and perhaps even the greatest the Premier League has ever seen. It’s getting hard to argue otherwise at this point. We’re getting déjà vu…
Be it the hamstring injury that’s been keeping him out most, or the abdominal issues that have held him back from being a regular starter most recently, neither his quality, age nor his relationship with Pep come into it – if/when he can play, he’s simply phenomenal.
With title rivals Liverpool having dropped points for just the third time all season with a dramatic 3-3 draw against Newcastle, it was pretty much a perfect night for Man City, though they still have a mountain to climb and can’t afford to make any slip-ups if they want to be in the conversation come May.
One thing is for sure, since it looks as though Rodri is very unlikely to make an appearance before the end of the season – no matter how determined he might be to make a comeback – the four-time consecutive champions will surely need to Kev to stay fit even if they want to close that nine-point gap.
You can see the highlights from Man City’s 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest down below:
Featured Images — Sky Sports (screenshot via YouTube)
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Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Danny Jones -
4th December 2024 
