We probably would have expected a result like this but we would not have predicted it to come about in quite this way.
Nottingham Forest were full of energy and menace and ambition, while Manchester City were probably as sluggish and out of sorts as we have seen them for some time.
City won, though, and did so with something to spare in the end. And why? Because Forest centre forward Chris Wood made the art of scoring goals look desperately difficult while Erling Haaland arrived as a substitute to make it look so devastatingly easy.