Haaland, City’s Nordic Terminator, is both scalpel and bludgeon at Emirates

H ere it is then: Total Erling. Wherever this current iteration of Manchester City may end up, this was a night when the texture of Pep Guardiola’s team seemed to shift decisively, to take on new forms and new shapes.

Erling Haaland came to the Emirates Stadium with 25 Premier League goals this season. He left with 26, and with a sense, too, of finding his own new gears, of leading City’s attack in every moment of the game rather than wandering around finishing its sentences.

Haaland was a scalpel as well as a bludgeon. He ran through and indeed over the red shirts; but also moved sweetly and cleverly off the ball, producing a performance of all-round central attacking craft in the biggest game of the Premier League season to date.

By the end City were top of the league on goal difference; which is of course Haaland-difference these days. It is strange to think how recently this looked like a long-term pursuit for Pep Guardiola’s team. That lead is now eaten away. The skinny-legged figure haring along in the rear-view mirror, fists cleaving the air, has become a pounding presence, right there at the back window, all set to start wrenching open the rear door, grasping for the wheel, muttering about culture and process and being so, so happy.

More worrying for the rest of the field, there was a completeness to this performance. Arsenal were City’s match in the first half. By the end, as the blue shirts drove the game into painful spaces, as Haaland turned and rolled in City’s third goal in a 3-1 victory there was a sense of ignition. Arsenal still have a game in hand. But Haaland in particular looks like a man ready to devour the season from here.

The Emirates had been a fevered place at kick-off. Mikel Arteta picked a