Pep Guardiola’s side have not come near to scaling the heights of last season but remain unbeaten for five months Perhaps this is just what happens when a team gets into the habit of winning: they keep on winning. They don’t have to dominate, they don’t have to carve out dozens of chances, they don’t have to hold possession for hours at a time. They just have to be, and by the quality of their being, they find goals when they need them. Manchester City aren’t Real Madrid, not quite. They’re not yet able to doze away from kick-off, watching idly on as the opposition squander a handful of chance ..read more

Erling Haaland was in terrifying form on his return to the City XI, smashing four goals in the first hour as they hammered Wolves A reminder of the teams Man City (possible 4-2-3-1) Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol; Rodri, Kovacic; Bernardo, De Bruyne, Foden; Haaland. Substitutes: Dias, Stones, Grealish, Doku, Ortega, Alvarez, Gomez, Nunes, Lewis ..read more

Erling Haaland’s sixth Premier League hat-trick, completed in the opening 45 minutes and featuring two penalties, signalled the goalscoring phenomenon is back in ruthless mood at the very best of times for Manchester City. After this crushing victory, in which Haaland added a peach of a fourth after the interval, City can do what Arsenal have been doing to them: pile the pressure on in this tightest of title races by winning at Fulham next Saturday, move ahead two points and make the Gunners think before kicking-off at Manchester United 24 hours later ..read more

Elijah Adebayo’s return boosts Luton, Wolves seek another City shock and Alexander Isak eyes golden boot Friday night’s clash between deeply imperilled Luton and newly safe Everton ought to mean contrasting moods among the two sets of supporters at Kenilworth Road. Still, off-field alarms at Everton are likely to dampen the mood in the away end despite the impressive three straight wins that have delivered safety for Sean Dyche’s side. Luton’s much-admired campaign against the drop, by contrast, looks as if it is running out of road yet this well-run club have less to fear from relegation than ..read more

Erling Haaland grabs vital goal, Richard Masters gets a Molineux earful and Brighton’s season fades out Ange Postecoglou found enough blue sky in the Spurs squad he inherited to make a pair of sailor’s trousers out of the opening 10 games of the season. The rest of the season since then feels like a return to the mean. Spurs would currently be eighth in the Premier League if their form outside of that supercharged start was rolled out across an entire season. Fifth place is probably above par for this miscellaneous group of players and the manager’s own first look at the league. And while defe ..read more

Another chance gone for Luton. Not for the first time this season, they failed to pull themselves from the relegation zone when opportunity presented itself. If this was not last week’s surrender to Brentford, then soft goals conceded to Hwang Hee-chan and Toti Gomes pointed to a team short of the quality to save itself. Even during Luton’s late surge after Carlton Morris’s goal, Wolves showed a knowhow to see out victory. Despite the legal wrangles and points deductions that have pockmarked the 2023-24 season Luton have not been out of the bottom three since November. If their remaining sched ..read more

Liverpool await a dead-ball salvo, Luton have to keep their chins up and things could get spicy at City Ground David Moyes will surely have taken note of Liverpool’s struggle to defend set pieces against Everton. Jürgen Klopp, who must be delighted with a 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday, should prepare his team for another bruising test when they visit West Ham. For Moyes, this is a chance to repair the sizeable damage to his reputation caused by last weekend’s collapse at Selhurst Park. West Ham were 4-0 down to Palace after 31 minutes and are preparing to part company with Moyes at the end of t ..read more

And to think Stuart Attwell was hoping for a quiet week clear of controversy. The referee was again the subject of rage, this time not from a Greek shipping magnate but from Wolves’ irate supporters, after he disallowed Hwang Hee-chan’s second-half equaliser at home to Bournemouth for the meekest of tangles in the buildup. Attwell initially awarded Hwang’s header before the VAR, Darren England, advised him to visit the pitch-side monitor to review a brush between Matheus Cunha and Justin Kluivert, albeit a petulant one. Kluivert went to shove Cunha and the Wolves substitute responded by flingi ..read more

Manchester United snatch chaos from jaws of serenity, Nicolas Jackson misfires and Liverpool stay in hunt Jammy, jammy Man United. To be fair, they did find a new way to be hopeless. Instead of the usual mayhem, they were in total control for 70 minutes, barely letting Coventry have a shot. But then, somehow, they snatched chaos from the jaws of serenity. ITV, and all their teatime viewers, couldn’t believe their luck as a cakewalk turned into a classic. United threw away a 3-0 lead, and for a minute, right at the end of extra time, they were 4-3 down – only for the VAR to come to their rescue ..read more

Manager calls for more recovery time for teams in Europe ‘It’s not about Pep or myself, it’s about the wellbeing of players’ Mikel Arteta has echoed Pep Guardiola in criticising the fixture schedule that meant Arsenal had to play only 48 hours after flying back from Munich before the 2-0 win over Wolves that allowed his team to reclaim top spot in the Premier League. Arsenal stayed over in Germany, after Wednesday’s Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, to help recuperate before their challenging trip to Molineux to face a Wolves side who had a week’s rest since their last game ..read more