Kevin de Bruyne shines as a perfect false forward as Man City await their new No.9

Pep Guardiola can be the scourge of the centre-forward, the pioneer who threatens to render them an endangered species. So how better to celebrate signing the world’s most coveted young striker than by presenting an argument that he doesn’t really need him?

Just the second player to score four goals in a Premier League game this season was a Manchester City midfielder, Kevin de Bruyne. Wolves, who had one of the best defensive records in Europe a few weeks ago, conceded five.

Guardiola joked he was disappointed De Bruyne, who also hit the post, did not get five of his own. The only other player to score four this year, incidentally, was the City striker who decided he wasn’t a striker, Gabriel Jesus. He was long seen as Sergio Aguero’s successor; instead, Erling Haaland may belatedly assume that mantle, but only after two seasons when City should win the Premier League without needing a specialist centre-forward in their strongest side.

Haaland offers the potential of 40 goals on his own, but City’s collective commitment to scoring is such that they have 22 in five games. They may yet finish this season with a century in the Premier League, the vast majority from those who can be called midfielders, wingers or No.10s; anything except strikers.

Guardiola celebrated Haaland’s imminent arrival by doubling down on his Pepness. There wasn’t even a semblance of a striker at Molineux. Instead, his bespoke ploy came in duplicate. Why take one false nine to Wolves when you can take two? It was the dual false nine, the false front two, the false 18.

Between them, they are a 20-goal front man: Bernardo Silva had scored seven league goals by early December. De Bruyne has 13 since then. Over the last five months, only Heung-min Son