Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne finding their form at the perfect time for Manchester City

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Arsenal and Liverpool will be worried…

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00:00 Michael, looking at Manchester City specifically, how good was Erling Haaland against Luton Town?

00:06 Five goals is quite spectacular. Are we seeing that he's possibly coming back to his best now?

00:13 I think so, yeah. Certainly in terms of fitness he is. He said that himself post-match.

00:19 The link-up with De Bruyne was just outrageous the other night.

00:22 Listen, fair play to Luton in some senses because they were brave, they gave it a go,

00:27 they didn't just put ten men behind the ball and accept a 1-2-0 defeat.

00:31 They made it a really open, entertaining game.

00:34 But at the same time, if you defend like that against Erling Haaland,

00:37 if you go one-on-one with a centre-back and you give him all the space to run in behind,

00:41 it's only going to end one way. And I think that was a lesson to the other sides the other night,

00:46 just really how not to set up against Haaland.

00:49 He was brilliant. He was just absolutely ruthless with his finishing.

00:53 Even those goals where he's just standing six yards out to tap it in,

00:58 and some people don't always appreciate that just being there in the right position

01:02 for De Bruyne to find you is more difficult than it looks.

01:06 I actually really like the fifth goal, and ITV did quite a good analysis of it,

01:09 where Bernardo Silva has the ball and he just kind of drifts wide

01:12 and he just gives himself that two-yard gap or two-yard space,

01:15 and if he gets the ball out of his feet and shoots and scores,

01:18 listen, it's only going to end one way.

01:20 I think that Haaland, it was only natural really that he scored so many goals last season,

01:25 especially with the injury this season, he was going to struggle to replicate those sorts of numbers again.

01:30 But he's still pushing 30 goals, I think, for the season, isn't he?

01:34 He's still his top goalscorer in the Premier League.

01:36 He's missed two months out with a foot injury.

01:38 He's still rifling home five goals in an FA Cup game.

01:42 It's a little bit like Messi and Ronaldo, where they were so good for so long

01:46 that when they have a little dip in form, I think people are very quick to criticise it.

01:49 I think we should just remember just how incredible Haaland is.

01:54 We're talking about players who play really well this year,

01:58 Oli Watkins, Dominic Solanke, Jared Bowen, strikers like that.

02:03 I mean, Haaland is just blowing them out of the water.

02:06 Supposedly not having as good a season as last season.

02:10 I think that was fantastic, and I think the really encouraging thing for City fans

02:13 is that him and Kevin De Bruyne, which is completely on the same wavelength,

02:17 I mean, De Bruyne, since he's come back from injury,

02:19 I think is some of the best form he's ever played for Manchester City,

02:22 really, just how consistent he's been.

02:24 Every game, his assists and goals and assists and goals, every single game.

02:28 I mean, to record four assists in the first half of a match,

02:31 OK, yeah, it is earning Haaland.

02:33 But, you know, some of the passes were great, and he's not, it's more than just the passes.

02:37 I mean, he gets the ball and he drives with it.

02:39 He plays the right pass with the right weight all the time.

02:44 He knows where the space is. He's got a complete picture in his head.

02:47 Listen, he's an absolutely fantastic footballer.

02:50 I think you've probably, for City, got the best striker in the world,

02:53 the best creative midfielder in the world,

02:55 and they're both coming back to full fitness in the final couple of months of the season

02:59 when everyone else is tired.

03:00 So I think that's the real concern for Liverpool, especially Liverpool.

03:02 I mean, they're falling apart. Look at the number of injuries they've got.

03:05 But I think that would be the concern for Liverpool and Arsenal,

03:07 that these two are just clicking into gear at the worst time in the season for them, really.

03:11 So, yeah, very encouraging for City, very concerning, I think, for the rivals.

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