Hidden Erling Haaland moment before Man City goal will please Pep Guardiola

On the one hand, Manchester City are 16 games unbeaten, haven't lost in 35 outings at home, and are back up to second place in the Premier League, level on games played with Arsenal and Liverpool.

On the other, City have two goals in the last two games from 56 attempts on goal across the Chelsea and Brentford games. It has not been perfect at either end - although a 1-0 home win in the circumstances they beat Brentford is exactly the type of win that title contenders need.

Haaland looked like he would make it a second frustrating game in front of goal until his clinical decider on 70 minutes against the Bees, although there was no sign of Kevin De Bruyne, who was dropped to the bench and didn't warm up in any capacity as he remained in his seat among the substitutes.

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We have collated the top five talking points from City's win over Brentford:

Something still isn't right for Erling Haaland since his return from injury, with three goalless starts in four without a goal before this game. He was guilty of missing a number of big chances against Chelsea despite accumulating an expected goals statistic of almost two. Against Brentford, he was less involved in front of goal as others took turns to miss presentable efforts, and there will be frustration on his part that he is yet to rediscover his pre-injury form of being a constant threat. His second-half goal was very welcome, and he will hope it kick-starts his season after injury.

But just as Pep Guardiola insisted that he won't offer Haaland advice on scoring goals given his paltry return as a player (admittedly,