Gary O’Neil, the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager, was serving a one-match touchline suspension at The Etihad. As he sat in the relative anonymity of the stands, watching his side being demolished by Erling Haaland, O’Neil may have reflected that it was probably the best place to be.
City were simply majestic as they swept Wolves aside 5-1. If they were feeling any pressure after Arsenal had beaten Bournemouth earlier in the day to move into a four-point lead at the top of the table, they did not show it. There was no sign of nerves at all. If anything, they seemed even more relaxed than usual.
The truth? This felt like a carnival. It felt like a staging post in a title procession. It felt like the kind of occasion that takes place when a team has already won the title, not when it is in the midst of a fierce fight with Arsenal.
Before the game, some young kids took part in one of the rondos with the substitutes during City’s warm-up. David Silva, a City legend, came back to the club for the first time since his departure and was introduced to the adoring crowd. It was a celebration a few weeks before the denouement.
It felt as if City knew something we don’t. We suspect it, I suppose. We suspect they are going to ease to that unprecedented fourth title by winning their final three games away at Fulham and Tottenham and at home to West Ham. City played like it is already a done deal.
Erling Haaland demolished Wolves as Manchester City played with supreme confidence
Gary O’Neil sat in relative anonymity in the stands while serving a one-match touchline ban
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There was no arrogance about it. Just utter self-assurance. City have been here before. They know what it feels like and they know what it takes to get the job done and they are setting about doing it with supreme confidence.
The jewel in their crown against Wolves was Haaland. How could it not be? He may have had a ‘quiet’ season, comparatively, after the 52 goals he scored in all competitions on the way to the Treble last season.
But the four goals he scored against O’Neil’s wilting team moved him up to 25 league strikes for this season and all but assured him of the Golden Boot for the second season in succession. Cole Palmer and Alexander Isak are five goals behind him. They will not catch him now.
Haaland was irresistible. Phil Foden, newly crowned as the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year, was irresistible, too. Wolves couldn’t cope with either of them. Haaland towered above the opposition, literally and figuratively. He summoned a prodigious leap to score a header, sandwiched between two penalties, and then finished things off with a brilliant curling shot from 25 yards.
What was it that Roy Keane called him? A League Two player? He didn’t look like a League 2 player against Wolves. He looked like a Rolls Royce of a centre forward, a centre forward who has got every gift in a centre forward’s armoury. That includes an insatiable hunger for goals. He was irate when Pep Guardiola substituted him near the end.
It had only taken City ten minutes to open the scoring. They worked the ball quickly down the inside right channel, Foden pushed a short ball to Bernardo Silva and he crossed first time towards Josko Gvardiol.
Gvardiol sprinted in on the blind side of Rayan Ait-Nouri and just as Gvardiol got his shot away, he was felled by the Wolves defender, who did not seem to have seen him coming. Referee Craig Pawson pointed to the spot, Haaland sent Jose Sa the wrong way with his penalty.
City were pushing everything through Bernardo Silva on the right, where he was isolating Hugo Bueno. They nearly went two up when Bernardo drifted a cross to the back post and Haaland’s towering header was beaten away at full stretch by Sa.
Haaland scored two penalties in a first-half hat-trick, before adding his fourth after the break
Wolves scored after the interval when Ederson pushed a cross straight to Hwang Hee-chan
Midway through the half, Foden took on the entire Wolves defence and it looked, briefly, as if he would beat them all as he closed in on goal. Nelson Semedo spoiled the attempt at the last gasp with a well-timed tackle and Wolves tried to regroup.
The visitors began to play some nice football. Twice, Joao Gomes turned sweetly away from Mateo Kovacic in the centre of the pitch and set up moves that eventually foundered. City, though, were relentless and soon they created another opening.
Ten minutes before the interval, Hwang Hee-chan and Matheus Cunha contrived to lose the ball in the inside right area that had already brought City so much joy. Kevin de Bruyne worked it quickly to Rodri and his cross, deep to the back post, was met by Haaland, who rose high above Semedo and powered his header across Sa and into the net.
On the stroke of half-time, Haaland raced through on goal pursued by Semedo. As Haaland pulled back his left foot to shoot, Semedo challenged him but nudged his standing leg out from under him.
Initially, it made it look as though Haaland had simply missed his kick. We should have known better than to doubt him.
VAR checked the replay and called referee Craig Pawson over to the monitor. It was a clear penalty.
Haaland took it again and hit it in the same spot, to Sa’s right. Sa guessed correctly this time but still could not save it. Haaland had a hat-trick before half time, which does not seem quite as outlandish in his name as it would set against another player. It was the sixth hat-trick of his Premier League career.
Wolves grabbed a goal back seven minutes after the interval when Ederson flapped at a cross and only succeeded in pushing it straight into the path of Hwang, who finished it coolly. The celebrations did not last for long.
Less than a minute later, Ederson played the ball out of defence to Foden, Foden lashed a superb ball over the top to Haaland and Haaland turned inside Max Kilman. Haaland looked up 25 yards from goal and curled a magnificent shot high into the far corner beyond the despairing dive of Sa.
Haaland nearly had a fifth on the hour when Gvardiol played a pass into his path and he hit a right-foot shot that was flying into the roof of the net until Sa produced a fine save to tip it over the bar.
Twenty minutes from the end, Foden skipped away from a challenge by Semedo on the half-way line before advancing and aiming a perfectly measured cross towards Haaland.
Haaland chose to try to score with a bicycle kick rather than a header and missed the ball entirely. It was about the only thing that had gone wrong for him all evening.
Haaland was taken off eight minutes from time, and his replacement Julian Alvarez also scored
It may only be complacency that can stop Pep Guardiola’s side from winning the title yet again
Haaland was substituted eight minutes from time to a standing ovation. Seven minutes from time, his replacement, Julian Alvarez, ran on to a ball from Rodri and slid it past Sa for City’s fifth. Guardiola looked as pleased with that goal as any that had been scored all evening.
City move on to Fulham next weekend and it feels as if only complacency can stop them now. Unfortunately for Arsenal, Guardiola hates the idea of complacency with every fibre in his being. He spends his career guarding against it. City are going to be awfully hard to stop.
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