Last summer’s flagship signing scored and so did this year’s. Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland are side-by-side in Manchester City forward line and in their squad numbers but the similarities end there. The Norwegian’s habitual, inevitable strike, took his tally to 14 goals in just 10 games for City. Grealish, who joined 12 months earlier, has half as many – seven goals – in 13 months. The striker is prolific, the winger accused of being unproductive. If Grealish needed a goal, Haaland didn’t but scored one anyway. He always does.
Phil Foden struck as well, but on a weekend when Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are not playing, City only really needed to perform for the first 16 minutes, in which Grealish and Haaland secured victory. If the striker’s presence on the scoresheet was predictable, the surprise came in the manner of his goal – a first from outside the box in City colours for the king of the penalty area – amid a role reversal. The predatory, close-range finish came from Grealish, the sort he has scored too rarely in a City career where his £100m fee has been a millstone and where he has been neither the maverick Aston Villa cherished nor a player imbued with added efficiency by Pep Guardiola.
