'Give Erling Haaland the ball and he will score' had proved to be a pretty effective tactic for Manchester City over the previous two months, but Aston Villa have exposed its flaws. They found a way to blunt the Norwegian's edges on Sunday, ending Haaland's run of scoring in 12 matches in a row for club and country while also becoming the first team to keep a clean sheet against Pep Guardiola's side in nine games.
Villa are far from the only team to have noticed that stopping Haaland means stopping City this season, but they were the first ones to see their plan through. It should be said that Unai Emery's side were a touch fortunate, and on another day Haaland might have scored. However, Haaland instead fired straight at Emi Martinez when played in by Bernardo Silva before heading a late cross straight at the Argentine goalkeeper. He even managed to find the net at the death, clattering into the post in the process, but the goal was ruled out by a marginal offside against Omar Marmoush.
It was a reminder that, contrary to what you might think looking at the jaw-dropping runs of form throughout his career, Haaland does not actually score all the time and cannot be expected to either. And unless City come up with a contingency plan, they will not be able to win the title back.