No sooner had Manchester City confirmed the blockbuster signing of Erling Braut Haaland this week than they fired a remorseless reminder that they do not really need him in order to be successful.
Kevin De Bruyne's four-goal masterclass against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday night showed Man City's world-class attacking talent in full flight once again, making a mockery of suggestions that a lack of a recognised centre-forward could prove fatal to the team's chances of success this season.
It is a narrative which has resurfaced on the few occasions Man City have slipped up this season and, in fairness, there is some logical basis to it: Man City have failed to score in four of their Premier League games this term, whereas title rivals Liverpool have only failed to score in one.
Those matches have accounted for 10 of the 19 points Pep Guardiola's side have dropped this season, whereas Liverpool have dropped only three points in games in which they have failed to score this term. Without such a difference, Man City would have already been crowned champions.
A clinical centre-forward may also have seen the Citizens fully capitalise on their superiority over Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, although that is of course entirely hypothetical now.
The Champions League remains an elusive holy grail for Man City's owners, but as far as the Premier League is concerned, it is difficult to back up any claims that a lack of a recognised centre-forward has hampered their campaign.
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After all, Guardiola's men have the most points of any club in Europe's top five leagues this season, while only Bayern Munich have scored more than their mammoth tally of 94 goals too.
With two games to go it is entirely likely that they could surpass the 100-goal mark for the third time in the last five seasons, and in only one of those has a recognised centre-forward been their top scorer - Sergio Aguero in 2017-18.
Even so, the addition of Haaland seemed like a no-brainer for a club like Man City - one wealthy enough to afford his wages, successful enough to quench his appetite for success and without an incumbent 'number nine' whose place he may be taking.
Guardiola has already voiced his confidence that Haaland will be able to adapt to Man City's style of play, and under the Spaniard you can be sure that it will be that way around, rather than Man City adapting to Haaland.
Nonetheless, the underlying statistics do suggest that there will need to be fairly major adaptation for at least one of the parties.
What will Erling Haaland bring to Man City?
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In a word: Goals.
As touched on above, that is not something Man City are lacking at the moment, so the prospect of adding one of Europe's deadliest marksmen into the fold as well is an ominous one for their rivals.
The headline numbers are well-trodden by now, but still eyebrow-raising every time you hear them, even in an age when the old goal-every-other-game measure of success has been obliterated by the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski: 85 goals and 23 assists in 88 appearances for Borussia Dortmund in total, including 28 goals and eight assists in 29 appearances this season.
He may only be 21, but his list of goalscoring achievements and records is already too long to detail in full.
What is clear from the stats, though, is that Haaland will be an upgrade on what Guardiola already has at his disposal when it comes to that hardest job in football - putting the ball in the back of the net.
When compared to Man City's top five current goalscorers - Gabriel Jesus, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and De Bruyne - Haaland is top of the pile in a plethora of attacking measures, most notably goals, but also assists.
The Norway international averages 1.04 goals per 90 minutes this season, whereas Man City's best is Mahrez with 0.73, while including assists he directly contributes to 1.43 goals per game - again, while clear of second-placed Mahrez on 1.06.
Haaland's expected goals tally is higher than any other Man City player too, although it is still 4.4 below his actual goal tally. Of the Man City attackers, only long-range specialist De Bruyne has a better difference between expected goals and actual goals.
Haaland has also had more shots than any of his future Man City teammates this season, although only three more than De Bruyne, and only one more on target than the Belgian. Both Sterling and De Bruyne get a higher percentage of their shots on target, but Haaland has more shots on target per 90 minutes than either, and crucially scores with 0.52 of his shots on target - the best of the six compared players.
Of course, Man City also create more shooting opportunities than Dortmund do, and often create better chances too, so the likelihood is that Haaland's numbers - already superior in many respects to the Man City attackers - will only get better with such creative talent around him.
How will Haaland have to adapt to Man City's play?
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While goals seem to be a given for Haaland, it is unlikely that Guardiola will accept a penalty-box striker who does not put the work in elsewhere on the pitch.
There is no doubt that Haaland's best work does come in the opposition area - his shots this season have come from an average of 13.4 yards from goal, with only Jesus averaging lower - but we have already seen Sergio Aguero fall out of favour with Guardiola when he started becoming a goalscorer without the extras which the Spaniard demands.
Perhaps the most important aspect of that is pressing off the ball, and Haaland does not fare too badly in that regard: on average he presses an opponent 13 times a game already, which is more than Mahrez and comparable to Sterling - although still some way behind the likes of Foden, De Bruyne and Jesus.
More importantly, though, when he does press, Haaland has a 31.6% success rate of winning the ball within five seconds - only Foden has a better such success rate from the five Man City attackers. As expected, the vast majority of Haaland's pressing also comes in the attacking third, where he can do most damage if he does win the ball back.
At the other end of the pitch, Haaland has made 28 clearances this season - 12 more than his closest challenger in that regard - and has more touches in his own penalty area than any of the other five, so he will provide more set-piece security defensively for Man City.
Indeed, aerial duels in general are an area where the 6ft 4in striker thrives, winning 57.6% of those he competes in - a long way above Mahrez in second with 42.3%.
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However, Man City play much of their football on the ground, and the stats show that Haaland only successfully receives 57.3% of the passes directed to him - no Man City attacker is below 73% in that regard.
Haaland also has far fewer touches in general than any of the Man City attackers - 651 this season compared to 957 for Jesus, who has the next lowest tally, although Man City's possession is likely to improve that for the incoming striker.
Of all the elements to improve in order to become a seamless part of such a slick City machine, it is perhaps Haaland's passing which will be top of the agenda.
Despite his relatively impressive assist stats, the Norwegian is comfortably at the bottom of the rankings in terms of completed passes, passes attempted and pass success percentage, and that is true when it comes to short passes, medium-length passes and long passes too.
Haaland is also bottom for shots created and shots created per 90 minutes, so he will either need to look to bring his teammates into play more often upon his arrival at the Etihad, or hope that Guardiola is content to have a more selfish, goal-hungry striker than he currently possesses.
Will Haaland guarantee more trophies for Man City?
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Nothing can be guaranteed in football, and Man City need only look at the closing stages of their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid for evidence of that, but this is certainly a statement signing.
Guardiola's men look set to lift another Premier League title this season, and adding one of the world's best players on top of that next season already makes it difficult to see how they will be stopped from retaining their crown in 2022-23.
It is the Champions League which will be top of the club's wishlist again next term, though, and while Haaland has a phenomenal record in that competition, he has never been beyond the quarter-finals himself.
Man City will likely start next season as the favourites to win both the Premier League and the Champions League, yet that has been the case for a number of years now and the latter still has not been delivered, so it would be foolish to suggest that the addition of Haaland makes them shoo-ins to lift Europe's biggest prize.
However, at just 21 years old, it is a signing which appears to set Man City up for success for many more years to come, and it is a marquee signing for the Premier League too.
Haaland, along with Kylian Mbappe, has been tipped to be the heir to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and looks well on course to fulfil that promise, so it will be an honour to watch him grace the Premier League for a number of years to come.
Man City fans will of course be delighted that it will be in the sky blue of their team, and there is no doubt that his arrival only strengthens an already unstoppable force.
Barney Corkhill
