What Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland said about Nottingham Forest’s pitch

Pep Guardiola offered an odd explanation as to one of the reasons why Manchester City managed to beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 on Sunday.

The Premier League champions were far from their best in the East Midlands but held on to come away with an important three points thanks to goals from Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland.

City didn’t play with the same level of fluidity, looked a little jaded at times against Forest and were susceptible to counter-attacks. In contrast, the hosts created several high-profile chances and were probably the better side in the opening hour.

But, strangely, Guardiola claimed the dry playing surface at the City Ground impeded the opposition players rather than his own, and seemed to imply Chris Wood might have tucked away one of his two clear-cut scoring opportunities, had the pitch been in better condition.

“We were so lucky the pitch was dry and high,” said the Catalan after the match concluded. “The chances they had, with better pitch conditions they would have scored. We were incredibly fortunate.

“There was nothing wrong [with the pitch],” he added. “It was dry because of the weather, the sun. That helped us.

“When we play at home we decide how we want to play and when we play away we adapt. We were lucky because with the chances they had, they could not make good contact with the ball because of the pitch.”

Meanwhile, Haaland claimed in his post-match interview with Sky Sports that the pitch ‘wasn’t the easiest to play on’, while Gvardiol described it as ‘really dry’. A report in the Daily Mail also stated that Kyle Walker lodged a pre-match complaint with the match officials about the state of the grass.

Either way, the three points ensured City kept pace with Arsenal at the top of the table, just hours after Mikel Arteta’s side won the North London derby 3-2. City trail the Gunners by a point but crucially have a game in hand.