The Thursday morning back pages will laud Erling Haaland's incredible 35th Premier League goal of the season, adding as a footnote that Manchester City are back top of the Premier League after winning their crucial game in hand.
Read those headlines, and City's 3-0 victory over West Ham will be seen as comfortable, inevitable, and a procession on the way to another Premier League title. The reality couldn't be further from the truth, with City, their fans, and Pep Guardiola feeling the nerves right until Haaland was sliding away to celebrate his most impressive record yet.
Take nothing from Haaland, who opened his account at West Ham on the opening day amid questions of his adaptability to English football and predictions that Liverpool's Darwin Nunez would outscore him. Fast forward 32 games, and 33 goals (or 51 now in all competitions) and Haaland continues to make a mockery of those theories. It was fitting his record goal came against West Ham.
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It feels the only person capable of beating Haaland's 35 goals in a season is Haaland himself, and he still has five league games to extend that record.
However, Haaland's goal was his only real contribution of a quiet individual performance, and that reflected a collective effort that struggled to get going on and off the pitch all night. The title nerves were well and truly set in, along with the tiredness that Guardiola alluded to pre-match.
Guardiola had already made a statement of his players' condition with his team selection, which echoed his pre-match comments that his players cannot be tired, however much they are exerting themselves at the moment. He preached the importance of rest between the nine 'finals' remaining this season, and his shock omission of Ederson appeared to force such a rest on his ever-present goalkeeper.
This was the first time in 62 Premier League games where Ederson hadn't started, and the first time in almost five years that the Brazilian started a league game on the bench. 'For the mentality, to take a rest is good,' said the manager, in a message that should resonate through the squad.
It was Ortega's Premier League debut, and his ball-work was tested by an aggressive West Ham press from the opening minute. The Hammers were missing Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek, Nayed Aguerd and Kurt Zouma through injury or illness, and could only name five outfield players on the bench - but were not turning up just for the sake of it.
City would test Lukas Fabianski, but were second-best in the opening stages and were guilty of giving the ball away far too often. It felt like a team who have played a lot of football in recent weeks, and before kick-off the atmosphere was one of expectation and complacency - a feeling Guardiola has been keen to eradicate over the course of their 18-game unbeaten run.
The nerves could be felt in the stands too, with a few half-hearted attempts to generate some noise ended by another bad pass or broken-down move. If ever a first goal was crucial, this was it.
So City did what they always do, and just put their foot on the ball and kept possession. Slowly but surely, the chances came - but only after Jarrod Bowen forced a stop from Ortega. Haaland headed over at the far post, Jack Grealish struck the near post, and two minutes later so did Rodri, popping up in the area and seeing his effort bounce along the goalline before going out for a goal kick.
It was far from cohesive, with both managers frustrated at the sloppiness of their players, but every run-in has a game like this. Cagey, tense, and where City have to find a different way to win.
On a night when Haaland was struggling to get involved and Sunday's matchwinner Julian Alvarez was equally quiet, it was little surprise to see City finally open the scoring from a set piece. Won by Grealish, Mahrez swung the ball to the back post, for Nathan Ake to head in his third of the season - in almost identical fashion to his winner against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup.
The resulting celebrations on and off the pitch were more of relief than celebration, but it opened the floodgates for more City attacks and a steady stream of chants from the South Stand. There may be some declaring the title race over, but tell that to the 55,000 nervous Blues at the Etihad.
In his programme notes, Guardiola wrote that City 'weren't perfect' at Fulham on Sunday, but 'found a way to win.' Guardiola's touchline reactions to each lost ball indicated that this was a more frustrating performance, and he gestured to the crowd to help the team through another period of pressure on the hour mark, treating them as if they were one of his players. When they responded, they got the same applause as Bernardo had done a minute earlier for a good clearance.
Imagine the collective sigh of relief around the stadium, then, when Grealish nicked possession and fed Erling Haaland for his first real run of the night. Timing his run to perfection, Haaland calmly lifted the ball over Fabianski for a record-breaking 35th of the season in the Premier League. The celebrations were not only for Haaland's incredible record, but of sheer relief after the previous 69 minutes.
City knew what to do from then, and returned to the top of the Premier League with ease. Phil Foden's deflected volley put gloss on a scoreline that was made to look far more comfortable than the game was. That was also City's 1,000th goal under Guardiola, another record to distract from the struggles that had gone before.
The nerves and tension will be a sidenote when this game is remembered, now that Haaland has his most impressive Premier League record yet. Guardiola won't forget, though, and while he will have seen a mentality of champions, the performance was below City's high standards for large periods.
With a player like Haaland, maybe City don't need to play perfectly all of the time to win the title. Maybe that sort of individual contribution will be needed if City are to get through the next five weeks with some winners' medals to show for it.
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