Pep Guardiola leaves Aymeric Laporte in Man City limbo with admission over his central defenders

Pep Guardiola couldn't have dreamed of a better Champions League night at the Etihad. Seven goals, five for Erling Haaland, a chance to remind the 'Twitter Guys' he might know more than them, and he still got time to release some years-long frustration over getting snubbed by Julia Roberts.

City remain alive in all three competitions, and Guardiola has returned the side to consistent form by doing things his way. A 7-0 scoreline can provide a decent justification of your tactics, and the manager was in a bullish mood after the game on Tuesday night.

After the headline-grabbing Roberts and 'Twitter Guys' comments, Guardiola also gave a passionate defence of his approach against Leipzig - one aspect of which will go firmly under the radar given City's attacking exploits.

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Asked about whether five-goal hero Erling Haaland (plus Kevin De Bruyne's brilliance) gives Guardiola a City team who he finally thinks can compete in the Champions League, the manager didn't speak about his forwards at all. His point about City being ruthless in a competition where they have not been in the knockout stages, again focussed on the defence.

"Always we have scored goals in the Champions League," he said. "We scored four goals against Real Madrid, we scored six against Monaco the first year, four against Tottenham. The problem was not I have the feeling we won't score goals, the problem is we concede stupid goals in the past. We give them, most of the gifts, we give them."

City allowed just one shot on target for Leipzig on Tuesday, after restricting Crystal Palace to no shots on Ederson's goal at the weekend. That's a ringing endorsement