Villarreal were just the latest in a long, long list of Erling Haaland’s victims, a 12th consecutive game clocked up with the Norwegian scoring. It was only one, which is not many for a man on 24 in his past 14 matches for club and country, but his early strike opened the way towards a win sufficiently dominant to suggest that a team is emerging once again. Pep Guardiola said: “We have the feeling that again we can control the games … that in many things you are coming back to what you were in the past.”
If Haaland is inevitable, he is not alone. Bernardo Silva added the second towards the end of a first half of notable superiority, before there were brief moments in which Manchester City allowed their hosts the illusion of making a game of this when it was gone.
When Haaland was withdrawn with five minutes left, there were whistles and relief; he had just fired two more shots at them, each saved by Luiz Júnior, but now at least he could do no more damage. He had already done enough.
City had, almost from the start, Haaland, Savinho and Jérémy Doku combining to force Luiz Júnior into making his first save after just 26 seconds and the Norwegian heading just wide 143 seconds later.
The Villarreal head coach, Marcelino García Toral, said: “That filled us with doubts about everything. We were like a boxer waiting to be hit. City are very good, and they have a plan. And this City is not the team from last season.”
It wasn’t easy to define Guardiola’s formation; at times it was something like 3-2-4-1, with the exceptional John Stones stepping forward. City had 65% of possession and the surprise was that it was that low.
Marcelino’s team certainly had difficulty deciphering that plan. Theirs was clearer and characteristic. This is a fast, athletic and tall side – 10 of the starting XI over 6ft – liable to sit deep and seek to run. That at least is the theory, but even in athleticism City looked stronger and Villarreal’s confidence was hit early, any threat seen fleetingly in the opening 45 minutes, Rúben Dias closing down Georges Mikautadze and Pape Gueye firing wide.
Besides, if Villarreal waited, City were willing to wait too, the goal that started it all on 17 minutes a portrait of patience, then sudden incisiveness. The ball was worked to the right where Savinho, faced by a yellow wall, stopped, looked, and turned away again. He played the ball back to Stones, who played the ball back to Savinho, who played the ball back to Stones, who … well, you get the picture. Six times they exchanged short passes, none of it done at top speed but all of it at the right speed, their opponents watched, tested, and slowly drawn out.
When Savinho played to Stones the last time, the Englishman went one step deeper towards Josko Gvardiol, whose pass broke a line as it was hit faster to Savinho. Suddenly, everything accelerated and, while the ball travelled, so did Rico Lewis up the inside track between two defenders. “I adore that player, he’s so intelligent,” Guardiola said.
Savinho slotted that familiar little angled ball into the area and into the run, Lewis arriving ahead of everyone and turning it across the six-yard box. Thundering in to score was, of course, Haaland.
It had looked almost easy and when City got the second so did that. Again, there was patience from City and passivity from Villarreal; again, it came from the right, another player slipping into the box undetected. There were nine Villarreal players in there, but when Savinho clipped in a cross Silva, who Guardiola said has “a head like a hammer”, was still alone to finish.
When Nicolas Pépé rolled his eyes to the sky on the hour having seen City pass around him again, it had seemed to say it all, but Marcelino said he had been proud of his team’s response. In the second half he said, “we were alive”.
Alberto Moleiro’s shot was blocked and Juan Foyth struck wide. Next Pépé thudded a shot against Gianluigi Donnarumma’s gloves before Gueye headed just wide. Pépé then volleyed over at the far post when Dias could only half clear a deep cross from Moleiro.
The reaction, though, was brief and a little late. There wasn’t time for much more: a Tani Oluwaseyi header off a post in the last minute and, before that, a couple more demonstrations of Haaland’s qualities. First, when he superbly brought down Mateo Kovacic’s diagonal and thumped a shot. Then when he carried it to the edge of the area and guided an effort towards the fair post. This time, there was no goal, Luiz Júnior saving twice; one would have to do.
