Man City fans will agree with Steven Gerrard over Erling Haaland

Saturday's result felt far more significant for Aston Villa than it did for Manchester City.

Every point can be crucial in a title race, yet Pep Guardiola's defending champions finished the weekend the same distance ahead of Liverpool as they had begun it, and closer in fact to the top of the table at this early stage. It is consecutive away games now where they have failed to win, although it is too early for that to be a pattern - especially in a team that have been so outstanding for so long on the road.

Villa, meanwhile, grabbed a draw that felt like a victory after staring a fifth defeat in six games down and rewriting the script to earn a deserved point in front of their home fans. Steven Gerrard will be under less pressure now and will look to use that point as a key moment in their campaign.

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Naturally, the post-match discussion could not help but go to Erling Haaland - the man who had dominated Premier League talk after consecutive hat-tricks took him to nine goals from his opening five games. Villa had more joy than most in stopping him, so how did they do it?

Despite making sure that City's No.9 didn't grab the headlines for the third time in a week, the Villa dressing room could not ignore the difficulties they had endured up against him. Tyrone Mings had to do most of the work, and his centre-back partner gave an insight into what it was like to face Haaland.

"He's very strong, he can hold up the ball, he can do everything really. He can run in behind, he's got pace, he's a great finisher," said Ezri Konsa.

"World class strikers, that's how they are. Sometimes they aren't in the game at all and then that one chance they