Erling Haaland mimics Gabriel Jesus as Man City monster Arsenal

The No.9 may have been 40 yards away from the penalty box but you couldn't fault the quality build-up play that created a Manchester City goal.

So often the case during Gabriel Jesus's five years at the Etihad, here the Arsenal striker could only watch and admire as goal-machine Erling Haaland turned assist king for assist king Kevin De Bruyne to fire City into the lead. Haaland just gets better and better and so do City.

Pep Guardiola's side are not just alive in their Treble hunt, they have rarely looked more alive. Every decision won from goals to throw-ins were roared on by a rampant home side to whip up the partisan crowd and make Arsenal even meeker, with the only surprise at the end of the night that the scoresheet only separated the teams by three goals; it felt like they were leagues apart at times.

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"Every game, every ball, every action - every time they are there," he said of Arsenal shortly before that match during his infamous 'happy flowers' rant. "We miss it, we don't have it."

The City boss had told Arsenal they would have to fight them to take their title off them when they headed down to the Emirates in February as they looked to defend their crown against the form team. City won 3-1 but came away feeling like they had got away with one in a contest where the Gunners had put them under the cosh for sustained spells in the match.

Even after briefly topping the league, normal service was resumed by the end of the week when City fluffed their lines at Nottingham Forest. They were eight points behind at the beginning of April and five going into this game, yet here it was utterly one-sided; having not expected to