Pep Guardiola is often accused of coaching the flash and the flair out of his most talented attacking players, ruthlessly wedded to a system that prioritises collective control over moments of individual brilliance.

But as his Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 on Saturday, clinching their sixth win in a row in the Premier League to go top — until Arsenal beat Brighton & Hove Albion later in the day — he had the footballing free spirit of Rayan Cherki to thank.

“There are moments that I just want to shout at him,” said Guardiola afterwards with a rueful smile, “and there are moments I want to kiss him.”

The latter came after the Frenchman scored and made an assist to break down a staunch Forest resistance, hammering home a crucial late winner with the flawless technique to which City fans have already become accustomed.

If his swooning before the media wasn’t enough, there is mounting evidence in Guardiola’s tactical approach to suggest that even he is falling for Cherki’s smooth-talking football. Ever since a 3-1 win over Bournemouth in early November — when he started Cherki alongside Phil Foden for the first time — Guardiola has hardly touched his Premier League starting XI, placing emphasis on surrounding the 22-year-old with technical players with whom he can combine.

“I have to allow him to express his incredible talent,” said the City manager. “In the first half, we had too many players behind the ball and fewer in advanced positions in the pocket.”

It was perhaps the clearest expression yet of Guardiola’s appreciation for Cherki’s off-the-cuff creativity against compact defensive sides, and an indication that the manager is doing all he can to nurture that kind of intuitive, touch-tight play.

This is a slight departure for Guardiola, usually a stickler for rehearsed patterns in the final third. But Cherki is helping Guardiola’s side to nick games that even previous iterations of his all-conquering team might not have won.

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Cherki’s uncanny ability to make incisive passes in the final third flows from outrageous technical ability with both his left and right feet. But there is also subtlety to the way he moves the ball, frequently looking to set defenders off balance by speeding up, slowing down, and shifting from side to side with tiny touches from every part of his foot.

He created City’s first chance of the game on 20 minutes, spinning a pass with the outside of his boot to allow Erling Haaland to hit a first-time shot, before almost sending the Norwegian through two minutes later with a prodded pass. That was intercepted, but Cherki waits for the exact moment that Neco Williams shifts his body weight towards blocking the pass inside before attempting to go around the outside, forcing the full-back to swing around and produce a dramatic block to stop the ball from going through.