With a convincing 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest, Manchester City recovered from the downward spiral and returned to life.

Goals from Bernardo Silva, a rejuvenated Kevin De Bruyne and Jérémy Doku finally got the champions back to winning ways after an alarming run of six defeats in seven games in all competitions.

With four of those defeats coming in the Premier League, City’s title hopes may be over, but they looked more like themselves as they overhauled Nuno Espírito Santo’s side.

De Bruyne was instrumental in returning him to the starting XI for the first time since September and with Jack Grealish also playing a more central role, City took an immediate lead and went close when Erling Haaland denied a save from Matz Sels a De Bruyne cut.

The opening goal came after just eight minutes when Ilkay Gündogan floated a ball that De Bruyne parried away with a powerful header. It seemed destined for the bottom corner, but Bernardo Silva got the finishing touch from close range. Josko Gvardiol could have scored a second goal soon after when he headed wide from a cross from the lively Bernardo Silva.

It was the start of an eventful few minutes for Gvardiol, who had made a series of costly errors in his recent appearances.

Once again he was at fault when he was dispossessed by Jota Silva, but goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, preferred to Ederson for the second game in a row, parried Morgan Gibbs-White’s ensuing shot.

Gvardiol, who had been given license to move forward, wasted another chance at the other end when he missed a shot wide of the target after Haaland passed it on.

City survived another scare on the half-hour mark when De Bruyne’s underhit pass was picked up by Chris Wood.

The in-form New Zealander seemed certain he would score as he approached the goal but missed the target. It was a miss the visitors were to immediately regret as Doku flew past Ryan Yates and beat De Bruyne, who secured his spot and smashed home.

As Guardiola tried to rally the crowd it was clear City wanted more, but in fact it was Forest who finished the first half stronger as Anthony Elanga and Nikola Milenkovic both had good chances.

But they failed to capitalize on the advantage and Doku put the game beyond doubt in the 57th minute when he raced onto a pass from Haaland and cut inside to fire past Sels from close range.

De Bruyne could have scored another goal when he curled a free-kick just wide. Elliot Anderson gave Ortega a chance to save late on but there was to be no repeat of Feyenoord’s capitulation last week as City monitored the game in a manner previously taken for granted.