At half-time of a rare Saturday where both Manchester City and Liverpool kicked off at 3pm, you could feel the knives being sharpened. City were 2-0 down at Crystal Palace, 45 minutes from a first defeat of the season, while Liverpool were 5-0 up against Bournemouth on their way to a Premier League record-equalling 9-0 win.
Despite the five-point gap between the sides going into the game, and Liverpool still looking for their first win, it was all set up for a week of hearing about how Liverpool are back, and City's defence isn't good enough to win the title. Then Erling Haaland stepped up, with his hat-trick helping City to a remarkable 4-2 comeback win, taking his tally to six goals in four games.
It's a far cry from his opening domestic appearance, where Liverpool managed to keep him quiet and an uncharacteristic late miss welcomed weeks of questions over whether he would cut it in the Premier League. Four games later and he's answered that emphatically, although a closer look at Liverpool's 9-0 win shows he still has a long way to go to get acceptance from the wider country.
