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“Vamos, vamos!” screamed Rodri in his native Spanish following a 62nd-minute header that seemed to grab a precious victory for Manchester City.

But the title chasers’ 2-1 lead lasted only 14 minutes as Phil Foden allowed Elliot Anderson to run off him and the Nottingham Forest midfielder, from range, curled a sublime equaliser beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma. City’s faithful were silenced.

Rodri’s first league goal in 22 months had come when he rose to head Rayan Aït-Nouri’s corner and arrived seven minutes after Morgan Gibbs-White had cancelled out Antoine Semenyo’s first-half opener.

Yet while City closed the contest harrying Forest they failed to find a match-winner. By the close, Pep Guardiola’s men had failed to do what was required to keep the championship in their hands until its denouement in May: to win.

Guardiola’s team now have nine games to play, Arsenal one less, and as Mikel Arteta’s men won at Brighton it is advantage Gunners, though more twists and turns may yet come.

The contest pitted the 57 goals (the division’s second highest) of Guardiola’s challengers against the 26 (second lowest) of Vítor Pereira’s relegation battlers. For City, Erling Haaland was back from injury after a one-game absence, Foden recalled for a first league start after being benched for two games, and Nico O’Reilly missing after “feeling uncomfortable” in training, Guardiola said.

Foden has struggled for form yet no confidence-deficit was present in a drag-back that claimed a free-kick. In a muted start Rayan Cherki’s corner from the left joined an early Semenyo effort as the closest to a breakthrough.

Pereira hoped to arrest a run of three straight losses in all competitions with an XI without the dropped Callum Hudson-Odoi and Omari Hutchinson from the 2-1 loss at Brighton, Jair Cunha and Nicolás Domínguez their replacements.

Pereira would have been happy to see how much of the contest was stuck around the middle third. He was aggrieved when Matz Sels’s clearance was hooked into his gift by a long Haaland leg and Cherki was found; then , relieved when Bernardo Silva was unable to beat the keeper. Foden sprayed a pass out wide and, taking the return, also tested Sels from range, the Forest No 1 again saving.

Pereira’s game plan was nothing new when facing City: nick possession, as Domínguez did from a dawdling Rodri at halfway, turn those in blue, as he did, and rush forward. The No 16 relayed the ball to Gibbs-White, who curved his run to the left, but the attempt was easy for Donnarumma to gather.

Now a goal of sheer class. Cherki trotted along a right channel, feinted once, twice, and flipped in a cross that was as lethal as Semenyo’s right-booted volley that claimed his sixth in 12 City appearances.

Guardiola had a brief celebration, an involved chat (as is his habit) with the fourth official, Thomas Bramall, then looked up and saw Donnarumma save Igor Jesus’s attempt low to his right.

At the break City led 1-0 – the same as Arsenal at Brighton – but it might have been more. First Foden slipped in Haaland down the left but he could not manoeuvre the ball past Sels. Then, Semenyo followed a rapid burst down the same channel with a cross through a crowded goalmouth that demanded but did not receive a toe-poke home.

Guardiola is a self-confessed adorer of Silva and, minutes into the restart, the little wizard showed why. Dazzling feet and snake hips bewitched two or three red-shirted defenders before his wand of a left-foot unloaded. Sels dived right and tipped the ball to safety as it headed for the bottom corner.

It was the exact area Gibbs-White found for his strike. Forest’s move could be traced back to a loose pass from Foden that ceded possession. The visitors broke down the right via Ola Aina. The right wing-back scooped the ball to the far post, Igor Jesus headed it back in, and the captain’s slick backheel fooled Rúben Dias and Donnarumma.

A pell-mell finish featured an added-time penalty shout when Rodri went over, challenged by Anderson, but neither the referee, Darren England, nor the VAR were interested. Then Savinho, with the very last kick, saw Murillo block off the line.