Due to a hamstring injury, the Belgian playmaker missed the first five months of the season; however, since the start of the season, he has significantly improved Pep Guardiola’s team.
Three days after making his Premier League debut with a header in City’s impressive 4-0 victory over Brighton on Thursday, De Bruyne helped Erling Haaland and Josko Gvardiol secure three vital points against relegation-threatened Forest.
Just after the half-hour mark, Gvardiol headed home City’s first goal after De Bruyne curled an appealing corner towards the near post. Midway through the second half, Haaland, a substitute, sent a through pass into the path of the custodian, who slotted the visitors’ second goal into the bottom corner.
Man City’s victory keeps them within striking reach of Premier League leaders Arsenal, who lead by just one point after one more game than the defending champions.
Assist king Kevin De Bruyne makes Premier League history
In just 19 games across all competitions since his long-term hamstring ailment was resolved in January, De Bruyne has contributed to 21 goals with six goals and 15 assists.
Even though De Bruyne has only participated in half of Manchester City’s 54 games in all competitions this season, no Premier League player has more assists than him (15), with Bukayo Saka of Arsenal coming in first with 14.
With his two assists versus Forest, De Bruyne became the first player in Premier League history to record more than one assist in a game—18 times total.
After 14 Premier League games this season, the 32-year-old has already tallied eight assists, trailing only Ollie Watkins (12) of Aston Villa by four points at the top of the standings with four games remaining for City to play.
With an incredible 110 Premier League assists overall, De Bruyne is only one spot behind Cesc Fabregas (111) in second place on the all-time record. Ryan Giggs (162), the former Manchester United winger, leads the list by a significant margin.
Pep Guardiola reacts to “really hard” Forest victory
Guardiola, who celebrated winning his 300th Premier League game on Sunday, was happy to see all three points at the City Ground. However, he thinks that his Man City team needs to win the remaining games in order to accomplish a record-breaking fourth consecutive title.
“[It was] really hard,” Guardiola explained.”Last season we drew and played much better than today.
“Knowing the circumstances that we arrived here, we knew the game that was going to happen. We were so lucky that the pitch was so dry. With the chances they had, with better pitch conditions, they would have scored.”
“We were incredibly fortunate for that. We suffered but when [Mateo Kovacic] came on in the second half and Bernardo [Silva] was involved in there, we were much, much better.”
Guardiola continued, “With four games left, it’s like climbing a mountain.””[We have] very tough games. The only thing is still we extend for one more week it’s in our hands.”
“We will not win the Premier League if we tie a game. That’s just the way things are. We extend this to a challenging game. Now take a little nap and get ready for the next game.”
Man City’s focus will now be on their match against Wolverhampton Wanderers at home on Saturday. After that, they have matches against Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur, and West Ham United to round off their Premier League campaign.
Topics #Forest's Victory #Kevin De Bruyne #Premier League
