Mercurial Kane wears his different masks to stun Manchester City

About an hour before kick-off at the Etihad Stadium a member of staff walks around handing out puzzles. At most grounds they are more popularly known as “team sheets”, but ever since Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City the exercise of deciphering his starting XI has become almost as absorbing as watching it. Brows are furrowed. Heads are scratched. Is that Bernardo Silva as a false 9? João Cancelo in midfield? That can’t be an 8, or a 7, and the 5 goes there, so … Ederson at centre-half?

The real trick, of course, is realising that at Guardiola’s City, formations and starting points are largely an irrelevance. Roles switch every 10 minutes. Positions switch every 10 seconds. What matters is the situation, of which no two are ever the same. City’s equalising goal came from a Raheem Sterling cross, attacked by Kevin De Bruyne at the near post, bundled home by Ilkay Gündogan. But you could swap any of those three names around and still picture exactly what happened.

Guardiola loves players who can do it all, which brings us neatly to the protagonist in this enthralling, physical, warp-speed game. The fact that it was Harry Kane who undid City on Saturday provided the obvious narrative hook. But as the home side pounded away in the second half, swapping positions, picking and rolling, weaving their customary triangles, there was also a certain footballing irony at work here.

What made Kane’s performance one of the greatest by a Tottenham player in the last 30 years was its multiple levels of excellence. Yes, Lucas Moura scored a hat-trick in a Champions League semi-final and Gareth Bale destroyed Internazionale on his own. But Kane did more than score and create. He was essential in restricting the service to Rodri in