If it was worth paying £51m for Erling Haaland solely to beat Crystal Palace at home, Manchester City's latest thrilling comeback owed more to the man that Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain haven't stumped up the funds for.
It may be no bad thing if the phone lines are disconnected at the Etihad for the remainder of the transfer window if it ensured Bernardo Silva stays at the club this season. He was a class apart as, for the second week in succession, City were 2-0 down and heading for seeming certain defeat before stunning their opponents with a second-half blitz including a hat-trick from Haaland.
Pep Guardiola was under pressure to show immediate benefits from their unusual mid-season friendly at Barcelona, and the squad arrived showing further cracks. Already without Jack Grealish from injury in the Bournemouth game and Nathan Ake at Newcastle, the blows taken by Kalvin Phillips and Luke Mbete at Camp Nou were enough to reduce the manager's options further for this one.
