As someone known to have added a new coach on Football Manager before to take over an upcoming opponent, sign a player at an absurd knockdown price, or sell a reserve for a nine-figure fee, it is actually easy to feel a modicum of sympathy for Manchester City.

Their current plight is a reminder, were it ever needed, that cheating does not guarantee success.

It does not, on the basis of 90 physically and mentally bruising minutes at the City Ground, even guarantee the purchase of good footballers.

Therein lies a great deal of facetiousness, of course. These are excellent players, wonderfully talented and suitably decorated, with an exceptional manager and staff in charge, and an entirely legitimate commercial revenue.

But they haven’t half looked like incompetent strangers of late.

Nottingham Forest, themselves five games without a win, boasting a single victory all season and occupying a place in the relegation zone, were breathtaking and breathless, gloriously organised, unified and ruthless on Saturday evening.

Oliver Glasner demanded “buy in” and on this evidence, every member of this squad has invested in the Austrian’s stock this past week. Liam Delap was extraordinary but a supporting cast of Morgan Gibbs-White, Jair Cunha, Xaver Schlager and Murillo got their lines in. Even picking them out feels harsh, so specifically team-based was this effort.

The visitors provided a stark contrast. The siege mentality that marked the start of this segment of the season between international breaks has been annihilated. The sheer rate at which different players are perpetrating goal-causing individual mistakes is preposterous. The threat of the Premier League humiliatingly crowning a paper champion has been eradicated – and not just by Arsenal’s unyielding efficiency.

Manchester City are diametrically opposed to the Gunners right now. They are a disorganised mess, with team-mates uncooperative to the point of incurring a few more charges for making it so that certain documents can’t be copied and pasted.

For the second Forest goal, Iliman Ndiaye pulled out of a 50/50 and reassigned responsibility at the last second to Elliot Anderson, who lost his duel with Xaver Schlager. Delap was then able to sprint from behind the centre circle to the edge of the area with only Ruben Dias, a cheap imitation of Roberto Ayala against Michael Owen at the 1998 World Cup, ahead of him all the way.

Marc Guehi was in the vicinity but an apparent lack of communication meant the centre-halves never really concocted a plan they could try and enact to stop the Forest forward before he finished past Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The opener was no better. As Josko Gvardiol collected the ball in the inside left channel, he found himself surrounded by four Forest players with no escape hatch – and no midfielder deep enough to offer an unblocked pass. Cunha mugged him to create a four-on-two attack – Cherki jogging back did not help – and carried the ball before going alone to score.

And the third was the pièce de lack of résistance. Ryan Yates comfortably held off Enzo Fernandez (£125m) to clear a high ball in the Forest area with an overhead kick, which Delap beat Matheus Nunes (£53m) to with strength and speed before turning impeccably to catch Anderson (£116m) completely off guard and stranded, launching another counter.

Gibbs-White picked the perfect moment to pass, and Delap’s shot was exquisite, bouncing off Donnarumma’s post and in.

Guehi and Gvardiol were removed at half-time, but to no discernible improvement from Nunes and Nico O’Reilly. At one point in the second half, Fernandez (£125m) received a pass in his own half with his back to goal and was immediately robbed by Murillo, leading to Yates having an effort deflect off Anderson (£116m) and onto the bar.

Rayan Cherki scored a stunning goal and Erling Haaland could have pulled one back himself, but anything other than a Manchester City defeat would have been wholly undeserved. Forest were full value for three points which dragged them up to 16th and Manchester United into the bottom three.

When Maresca was asked about the ongoing situation at the Etihad when they returned from the October international break, he described it as “noise” and insisted he and his players would not be affected because “what we can control is the football side”. Heading into the November pause, the absolute last thing they are exhibiting on the pitch is “control”. And they’ve probably written over their last save file like idiots.