sport news JACK GAUGHAN: Manchester City are peaking at just the right time in this title ... trends now
Erling Haaland was a fan for the day. A fan in a posh box, but one all the same. A fan who joined the other fans in doing the Poznan — turning your back on the game, jumping up and down — to taunt the opposition. One who mauled his friend, Ivar Eggja, when the first goal went in.
So lively, Haaland could have done his groin. Manchester City would not want that. Pep Guardiola sounded like a man who believes his 42-goal striker will be back in business at Southampton next weekend.
They might have missed him against Liverpool but didn’t. The performance, probably their best of the season, made you wonder how many the big fella might have tucked in himself.
It is the first time since last May that they have won four Premier League games on the bounce and it’s not a bad time to do it.
Haaland knew that, racing across the stadium from his private quarters to the tunnel and making sure to congratulate his team-mates as they strode inside the dressing room. Big hugs, backslaps. Some selfies. The usual.
Manchester City kept pace with Arsenal by beating Liverpool 4-1 on Saturday
It came in the absence of Erling Haaland, who watched on from the stands
Pep Guardiola's side may have peaked at the perfect time in the title race
That was a major difference to the scenes outside the training ground over the road at 3.55pm on Friday, when he was frustratingly racing away in his car five minutes before the session started, knowing he would be absent for Liverpool’s visit. Arsenal would go on to win again, and so there is no change at the top, yet City feel like they are in the groove.
Eight points is the gap — City with a game in hand — and it could be that they have to win every game from now on if Guardiola is to get his hands on a third consecutive title.
‘There are still a lot of games to go but we probably have to win all of them,’ said defender Manuel Akanji. ‘That is what we aim for, and we hope we can do that.’
City have done it before, of course. Guardiola has given his players three days off, presumably under strict instructions not to bother the clientele at Revolution Bar in Wilmslow, and wants them recharged for the final push and that seemingly never-ending European quest.
Bernardo Silva said: ‘Where we are at the moment is the best we’ve played, by far. We have to keep the momentum. It’s a time of the season when everyone is connected to the game and is in good physical form.’
Arsenal travel up this way at the end of the month but Silva is in agreement with Akanji. ‘If we slip up before then it doesn’t matter what happens in that game,’ the Portugal midfielder added. ‘Arsenal can win the title but we are going to fight until the end.’
City’s is a mildly favourable
