Manchester City let their lead slip twice in a damaging 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest and dropped two further points in their pursuit of Premier League leaders Arsenal.

The next time Pep Guardiola’s side walk out at the Etihad for a league match, it will be against the Gunners in mid-April, live on Sky Sports.

Perhaps the landscape will look different again by then, but for now, the gap at the top has lengthened to seven points after Arsenal beat Brighton on Wednesday.

On a night where finesse was in short supply, with City missing the balance of Nico O’Reilly in midfield, Antoine Semenyo and Rodri scored either side of the break, with a wonderfully improvised back-flick goal from Morgan Gibbs-White sandwiched in between.

Forest were full of spirit and fight, creating less than their hosts but proving equally as clinical when it mattered.

Elliot Anderson sauntered through midfield by playing a clever one-two with Callum Hudson-Odoi in the second half – shortly after Erling Haaland had a legitimate penalty appeal turned down – and wrapped his foot around a fine finish. City were stunned.

The home side had chances to win it in stoppage time, Rodri firing carelessly wide from Savinho’s cutback and Semenyo sending a free-kick a whisker over the bar in a frantic and fairly desperate ending.

And then, with the very last kick of the game, Savinho’s goal-bound effort was turned off the line heroically by Murillo.

Just how costly will this result be when all things are said and done in May?

The advantage and ascendancy is very much Arsenal’s to lose.