On the day Nottingham Forest paid tribute to the man Brian Clough called ‘Picasso’, Manchester City’s French artist Rayan Cherki produced a masterpiece worthy of Matisse or Monet.
John Robertson, Forest’s double European Cup winner who passed away on Christmas Day, was described in those glowing terms by Clough, and he would surely have appreciated Cherki’s decisive contribution here.
In the week where, Pep Guardiola had focused on the weight of his Manchester City players, it was beginning to look as though they had missed a chance to tilt the scales of this title race in their favour.