The unnecessary act of aggression by RODRI marred what ought to have been one of Pep Guardiola’s finest creations.

One minute into the second half, the Spaniard was dismissed after a nasty collision with Morgan Gibbs-White.

In spite of the fact that Forest supporters were likely joining them in this thought, the bulk of people in the Etihad at that point were only interested on how many points their heroes would win by.

Early goals from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland put Manchester City in a fantastic position. Both goals were the products of fantastic, almost comical football.

Then, out of nowhere, things became crazy when Rodri red-misted, and even though the ten men succeeded, Ederson still had to make a last-second, outstanding intervention to stop Wily Boly’s thunderous shot before diving on Anthony Elanga’s rebound attempt.

The American opponent of the Brazilian Matt Turner wouldn’t have needed to be a prophet to predict that his afternoon would be lot more difficult than it turned out to be at the beginning.

The USA No. 1 faced a team that, in the previous week, had fired 29 shots at West Ham before pelting Red Star with another 37.

And it shouldn’t have surprised him when, by the second minute, he was flying to the left to deflect a free kick that Julian Alvarez had taken from 25 yards out.

After two years in command, Forest manager Steve Cooper moved to damage control mode, abandoning any intention of being cheeky in light of his last visit’s 6-0 hammering from last season.

But it was already too late.

It’s unlikely that either Guardiola or his team would have been shocked if they had been practicing their shot more.

But they had almost a physical sense that they might also be able to enhance the beauty of the Beautiful Game.

It is debatable whether Foden’s game-opening goal or Haaland’s eight goals this season were the actual masterpiece.

Both artifacts were priceless examples of contemporary art that, by the end of the year, might help City surpass their previous record of winning the Champions League, Premier League, and FA Cup.

But Foden probably came out on top.

The move was finished by Jeremy Doku, who flicked the ball to Rodri, who passed it to Kyle Walker, whose cross was finished spectacularly by the attacking skill now in full bloom.

However, that contribution really served as the finale of a total of 46 passes, the second-longest Prem goal-scoring stretch since the 2006–07 campaign.

After rising like a Viking god seven minutes later, Haaland blasted a header past Turner, who was defenseless.

The Norwegian did the most celebrating since, whether or not he had previously scored seven goals, he had been passing up many similar chances.

Rodri, a later infringer, gave the poetry when he passed to Alvarez and then stepped over the Argentinean’s return to let Foden slip to Matheus Nunes on the right side, whose delivery to Haaland was flawless.