Erling Haaland came out in his sliders. White, Puma, the number nine neatly imprinted in black marker pen. On his right foot, a visible scar synonymous with a striker of any era.
Skin breached, a red mark on the bridge. Looked nasty, as if burning faintly. Clearly a stud has gone through the outer shell of boots that are becoming lighter and lighter. An occupational hazard, footballers are occasionally stood on.
But Haaland pointed at his torso for the real damage of an afternoon against the Premier League’s most robust defence. And in Gabriel, the roughest of them. ‘A lot of scratches,’ he grinned. ‘Sometimes my missus is not so happy about this, it looks a bit wrong! But that’s the reality.
‘This is the Premier League nowadays. It’s wrestling here and there. A lot of duels.’
Nobody won a higher share of aerial duels than Haaland’s 75 per cent on Sunday. Not anybody who contested more than one, anyway. Gabriel lost three of his five.
There was only one winner in an individual battle that is beginning to define this rivalry. Gabriel has come out on top before but not at the weekend, not when Haaland has this sort of fire inside.
So wound up by the way their subplot to the main event was going, Gabriel attempted to nestle his forehead into the City striker late on. In keeping with the other aerial duels, he promptly missed. Haaland noted that he was booked for his part in this, also laughing that Anthony Taylor did not award a free kick when the Brazilian tore strips off his jersey.
Under the skin of Gabriel on the day and under the top and up the arms were the red blemishes of a striker who withstood goading and hassle that ironically might have been designed to provoke a reaction. His weapon of choice is to mimic his aggressors, perhaps sing. Throw in a derogatory name laced with pity.
Haaland said that yes, it was obviously a red card and yes, maybe it would have been easier to go down but that his father, Alfie, always taught him to stay on his feet. The 25-year-old appeared to suggest that the family would have used terms for genitalia to describe him had he hit the deck.
The winner, where both players had hold of each other’s arms, swinging like Stretch Armstrongs, marked another moment when it feels as though the international break – and how Norway managed him – has reignited somebody who was clearly struggling for fitness.
‘I’m really happy the national team helped me and said, “you know what, relax” after playing 50 games this season,’ he said after sitting out one friendly and visiting Dr Ramon Cugat in Barcelona. ‘And to get ready for the most important two months of my career with the World Cup as well. I’m happy they let me relax and fix my body a little bit and then come back to attack.’
Fixing the body. Strong words and it is this playing through the pain that Pep Guardiola might focus on for praise if City do finish the season with this title. To see this through from here, City top on Wednesday if they beat Burnley, will depend on the more experienced heads coaching the younger players through.
To that end, Haaland’s return to proper form comes at the perfect juncture.
‘After West Ham (last month), everybody wrote that it was over,’ Haaland said. ‘That was the feeling. There are a few of us who have been in this situation before. A few new… a lot new (players)!
‘It’s like when I came to the club, I learned a lot from the old players like John (Stones) and Ederson, Riyad (Mahrez), the way they behaved when it came to a decisive moment.
‘You need to stay calm and focus on what you can do. Stay calm, not think too much – which is the most difficult thing, because it gets heated at times and before the Arsenal game there was a lot of talk.’
Talk is not likely to subside from here, only heighten and Haaland, who watched Arsenal’s recent defeat by Bournemouth, will implore his City team-mates to remain humble.
‘Over the last seasons they (Arsenal) have come up short,’ he added. ‘For now they are first and they are still there, they’ve been the best team of the season. I don’t want to speak too much about them because they are an amazing team.’
Yet by remarking on Arsenal’s past stories of nearly men, Haaland delivered the previously unsaid: he smells blood, and not only from his own wounds.
