'Haaland is the main reason City look very unlikely to slip up from here'
Arsenal and Manchester City continued toe-to-toe at the weekend with neither Bournemouth nor Wolves landing a serious blow on either.
Arsenal may be ahead on points, but City are still favourites, particularly with Erling Haaland back to his best.
He got to look special because of his own early goal. Wolves were then tempted out of their defensive shape and, unusually for a Premier League game at the Etihad, Haaland had acres of space to run into behind the opposition defence.
The Norwegian can cut a forlorn figure with nine defenders packed around him in the 18-yard box, but his 12th-minute penalty opened the game up.
His fourth goal was an archetypal pre-City Haaland goal, powering at and beyond opponents effortlessly.
Is there a defender in the world that could go one to one with him and regularly come out on top without help from a gang of team-mates? Maybe Antonio Rudiger at a push, but it is a posse not a player that is needed in these situations.
Haaland’s headed goal was as iconic as Ruud Gullit’s famous bullet against the USSR in 1988.
If Haaland has added that world-class string to an already multi-wired bow, he actually can improve. This is scary and also the main reason City look very unlikely to slip up from here.
The only sadness was that it outshone Phil Foden being voted the football writers' player of the year and the return of the genius David Silva to say goodbye to the Etihad after he did not get the chance when he departed during Covid.
But that is what the best strikers do - they grab the limelight.
Pat Nevin was writing for the BBC Football Extra newsletter
