Erling Haaland had one of those afternoons but was hardly alone in a game from which Liverpool most benefitted
Perhaps in years to come those who were present at the Etihad Stadium for this extended headlock, football reimagined as a complex and lingering Sunday hangover, will say I was there when Manchester City failed to score in a home game for the first time in 58 matches.
What to say about a game that wasn’t really a game, a decider that decided very little, beyond keeping the Premier League title race still tantalisingly open? What happened here anyway?