De Bruyne's return helps Manchester City break winless run, but problems persist

MANCHESTER, England -- Manager Pep Guardiola was keen to stress in the build-up to Nottingham Forest's visit to the Etihad Stadium that Kevin De Bruyne's return to the team will not solve all of Manchester City's problems.

After six defeats and a draw, the midfielder cannot fix everything. But making his first City start since suffering an abdominal injury in mid-September, De Bruyne had a goal and an assist inside the first 30 minutes of his comeback. While he's not the solution to all the issues currently affecting Guardiola's champions, he's pretty good at papering over the cracks.

City won 3-0 to record their first victory in any competition since beating Southampton on Oct. 26. De Bruyne will be 34 next summer and the last 18 months of his career have been decimated by injury. Still, Guardiola's team is still better with him in it.

"I'm so happy for him," said Guardiola.

"Last season, he was many months injured, this season as well. I'm so happy he's back. He fought a lot. He played 75 fantastic minutes. We needed to win. The club, the players, everyone needed to win."

On Tuesday, Guardiola was forced to deny suggestions that he's fallen out with De Bruyne after restricting him to a bit-part role in the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.

The City manager insisted the Belgian must be eased in gently after six weeks on the sidelines. Against Forest, he decided the time was right to throw him back in.

It took De Bruyne just six minutes to create his first chance of the night, fizzing in a cross from the right which was hammered goalwards by Erling Haaland and saved by goalkeeper Matz Sels. After eight minutes, he had his assist. Ilkay Gündogan crossed from the left, De Bruyne guided a header back across goal and Bernardo Silva added a simple finish on the line.

City need to solve their over-reliance on Haaland's goals and it was the first time Silva has found the net since the Community Shield against Manchester United in August. De Bruyne has struggled for goals too, but he was gifted his third of the campaign by a Forest defence that seemed determined to allow him as much space as possible.

After collecting a pass from Jérémy Doku in the centre of the penalty area, he had an eternity to pick his spot and whip a right-foot shot past Sels. After a bruising month, it was exactly what City needed.

De Bruyne could have had a hat trick in the second half. He saw a low free kick flash past the post and then had his head in his hands when Sels somehow clawed away a shot that looked to have found the corner of the net. With 16 minutes still to play, Guardiola decided it wasn't worth the risk to leave him on any longer ahead of tough trips to Crystal Palace and Juventus in the next seven days.

De Bruyne walked off -- the game won -- to chants of "Oh Kevin De Bruyne" ringing round the Etihad.

"He played really good," said Guardiola.

"Defensively he helped us a lot. Very good. I'm really pleased. He's an incredible person. What he's done these years with us have been outstanding. When he's fit, maybe he can't play every three days, but hopefully he can help us like he has since coming from Germany.

"We'll see how he recovers after a long time injured but we will see how he feels in three days."

It's too early to say De Bruyne is back to his best and the same goes for City.

A first win in eight games will be a welcome relief for Guardiola, but there are still problems to address. Forest had 12 shots and should have scored at least once. Chris Wood had a golden chance to make it 1-1 midway through the first half but fluffed his finish. The defensive vulnerability which has been a theme of City's disastrous run hasn't been cured just yet and it won't help that Manuel Akanji and Nathan Aké were both forced off with injuries.

"The problems continue with Manu and Nathan but we prove what an incredible group of players we have at our disposal," added Guardiola.

"I'm sad for Nathan. Manu, we'll see. Maybe not Selhurst Park but Turin. Nathan I think will be longer. We played good, we still missed some easy things and lost some passes. It was better than [the defeats to] Liverpool and Bournemouth but quite similar to the other games that we didn't win. Today we won. That's all."

Still battling against a debilitating injury list and frailty at the back, Guardiola knows De Bruyne is not the answer to all of his problems. But it certainly helps to have him back.