Erling Haaland can help Man City avoid making familiar mistake vs Tottenham Hotspur

Manchester City fans will have bad memories of Tottenham's last visit to the Etihad Stadium.

Riyad Mahrez's last-minute penalty sparked celebrations in the stands as City looked to have snatched a late point, only for a gut-wrenching winner from Harry Kane to be turned home in the 95th minute.

The Blues dominated the match against their North London opposition, as they registered more possession, shots, corners, passes, and touches. But Spurs' gameplan was simple, sit in deep and hit City on the counter-attack, with Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Kane all exposing the space left in behind the Blues' defence.

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Pep Guardiola admitted the difficulty of playing against a team that sits in deep, as he revealed his frustrations after the match. He said: "They won the first half with the goal, no more. Trying to attack when they have five at the back or six at the back is just not easy."

So with Spurs set to visit the Etihad on Saturday afternoon, likely to employ the exact same tactics as last season, the question is: what have City done to prevent the same outcome happening again this time round?

The answer is a 6ft 4in Norwegian goalscoring machine, otherwise known as Erling Haaland.

The former Borussia Dortmund striker has scored a staggering 10 goals in six Premier League appearances so far, with two hat-tricks. Haaland has put to bed any doubts that he would struggle with the intensity of the English league, leaving many pundits and rival fans with egg on their face.

Killing a game off when you're dominating a match is absolutely vital — and something that City failed to do last season. They had 71 per cent possession and 21 shots compared to