Contrasting reactions to Mo Salah and Erling Haaland misses expose reality Man City must accept

At half-time of a rare Saturday where both Manchester City and Liverpool kicked off at 3pm, you could feel the knives being sharpened. City were 2-0 down at Crystal Palace, 45 minutes from a first defeat of the season, while Liverpool were 5-0 up against Bournemouth on their way to a Premier League record-equalling 9-0 win.

Despite the five-point gap between the sides going into the game, and Liverpool still looking for their first win, it was all set up for a week of hearing about how Liverpool are back, and City's defence isn't good enough to win the title. Then Erling Haaland stepped up, with his hat-trick helping City to a remarkable 4-2 comeback win, taking his tally to six goals in four games.

It's a far cry from his opening domestic appearance, where Liverpool managed to keep him quiet and an uncharacteristic late miss welcomed weeks of questions over whether he would cut it in the Premier League. Four games later and he's answered that emphatically, although a closer look at Liverpool's 9-0 win shows he still has a long way to go to get acceptance from the wider country.

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Nobody can deny Haaland has started the season in dangerous form. Analysis of his supposed lack of touches has been rendered irrelevant due to his goal return with the touches he does have. As Pep Guardiola pointed out on Saturday, his movement and awareness to be ready when a chance comes are as impressive as the goals themselves - and a big reason for why he's got them.

However, in that Community Shield defeat to Liverpool, he was largely kept quiet, and that glaring six-yard miss in injury time wasn't his finest moment. It prompted every pundit going try to