'Not a striker who is happy!' - Jeremy Doku makes honest assessment of Erling Haaland as Man City return to form and insists 'we just don't listen' to criticism after dire run ends

Haaland played a defence-splitting pass for Doku to run onto during the 3-0 win over Forest and sprinted towards the area, screaming for the ball. Doku, however, took matters into his own hands and scored with a lovely curling strike to make sure of City's first victory in eight games in all competitions.

City had fallen 11 points behind Liverpool after Sunday's defeat at Anfield, the club's fourth consecutive Premier League defeat. They trimmed the gap down to nine points thanks to the win over Forest and the Reds' 3-3 draw at Newcastle. And Doku admitted there was a huge sense of relief among the squad. He said: "Yeah, we were waiting for this win. We know it's difficult as a team. We are used to winning so when we had some difficulties to win a game it's difficult. We didn't listen to the noise of the outside. We just kept working and grinding. Today was a good game. We recover tomorrow and hope to continue this."

Doku also spoke about Haaland, adding: "He just said congrats. Obviously it's normal. He's an attacker, he wants the ball. I try to look for him, this action I shot, maybe it was a goal or a miss. Today was a goal. Erling is not a striker who is happy. He's knows he can't get every ball so just wants to be in the best position. It's unlucky he didn't pick up a goal but you saw how important he was today."

Doku said the players blocked out all criticism of their performances during the winless run. He explained: "No, we just don't listen. At the end of the day when everything goes well they're going to hype you up. When everything goes bad you're the worst. We don't listen, we concentrate on ourselves in our bubble. We know together we'll be stronger."

The Cityzens travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday hoping to build on the win against Forest and eat into Liverpool's lead again. And Doku said the team have not given up hope of overhauling Arne Slot's side's huge lead. "They can say whatever they want," he added. "We just stay in our bubble and we're still in December. If they think it's over, let them think it's over. We are going to look game by game, try to win as much as possible, and we will see at the end."