Erling Haaland was at the heart of Manchester City's best moment in a drab first half against Everton on Saturday. The problem for Pep Guardiola was that he wasn't on the end of it.
Haaland flicked out his heel on halfway to make an interception, Phil Foden picked up the loose ball, but sold his team-mate short with the pass. That actually turned into a bad thing for the scrambling Everton defence because, as he successfully retrieved the situation, Haaland got his giant limbs whirling and spied space for them to clatter towards.
You're familiar with those marauding Haaland dribbles by now, an awesome spectacle in the flesh. And one we've seen a lot more often this season for a Manchester City team where the hulking No. 9 being the focal point is one of the few locked-in certainties.
Defenders backpedal, tottering and knowing they could be scattered like bowling pins the moment they try to intervene. A rumbling swell of expectation builds in the crowd. There's another Haaland goal on the way.
Only this time, the Premier League's top scorer chose – correctly — to pass to Tijjani Reijnders. The Dutch midfielder smartly helped the ball on to the in-form Jeremy Doku, who shot too close to Jordan Pickford.
MORE: Premier League top goal scorers 2025/2026: Golden Boot rankings as Haaland leads the way
It was the third very presentable chance of the opening period that City had passed up. Doku's fellow winger Savinho fell well short in his own joust with Pickford and Reijnders had a close-range attempt deflected wide.
To send the much-loved and overused Mick McCarthy meme back to the well, there was an obvious question midway through this game.
"City's dependency on Haaland's goals can't go on like this, can it?"
"...It can."
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When were Man City last top of the Premier League?
For the first time in 351 days, for the first time since the wheels, doors and most of the chassis fell off Pep Guardiola's serial champions last season, City are top of the league. There are other players who will be important to their designs of trying to finish there.
Everything has looked much smoother in defence since Josko Gvardiol returned from an early season injury to imperiously patrol the left-hand side of the back four. The Croatia international was rested among the substitutes today, leaving the more persistently injury-hit Nathan Ake to make his first Premier League start since February. Ake produced an uneven showing and could be thankful he was not up against a sharper threat than Everton centre-forward Beto.
Talking of injuries, Rodri is in the midst of the subsidiary muscular problems that tend to follow a long time out after major surgery, but Nico Gonzalez produced another assured and authoritative showing against Everton. He's not Rodri, but City are not falling apart without their Ballon d'Or winner as they did last season.
Further ahead in the midfield, the resurgent Phil Foden broke the game open. The England international, currently exiled from Thomas Tuchel's plans, was the only City player who could reliably change the tempo and angles of attack and shift Everton off balance with the game at 0-0.
"It was a question of time," Guardiola said of the 25-year-old's maturing skill set. "You cannot play all the time in sixth gear. You have to [change] the tempo. It was a question of time that he would improve and realise that not all the time can you have explosive actions. You have to work, you have to make two touches, one pass and, in the moment, make some brilliance.
"Step-by-step, Phil will be better. Like a good wine. With time, he will be better."
In the 58th minute, he dropped deep to release left-back Nico O'Reilly with a delicious through ball. O'Reilly's cross met that standard and there was Haaland at the back post to gleefully head home his 10th Premier League goal of the season.
It is only the third time a Premier League player has reached 10 goals in the first eight games of a campaign. Haaland did it the first two times, too.
It underlines the absurd levels of a goalscoring freak we can take for granted, one that certainly doesn't need the sort of help dished out when a slightly unsighted Jordan Pickford dived all around his first-time effort in the 63rd minute. Foden was involved again, Savinho laid it on. 2-0. Game over.
Do Man City depend on Haaland too much?
City finished the match as the Premier League's top scorers with 17, even as behind Haaland's 11, none of their players have more than one. Burnley defender Maxime Esteve is their second-highest league scorer courtesy of his own-goal brace on this ground last month.
The obvious point of superstar players is that you come to depend on them, with them being paid to do things that most mortals can't. "Messidependencia" became a phenomenon and a worry at Barcelona when Lionel Messi carried the team on his back in the years after the peak of the fabled MSN attack. But Barca still won lots and, in this mood, Haaland should ensure City do too.
Not that Guardiola views this as the ideal state of affairs. It was telling that, when invited to praise Haaland in the first question of his post-match press conference, he quickly turned his focus to those not scoring goals.
"If we want to do good things, we cannot rely on just Erling. Our wingers, attacking midfielders and the other players have to make a step up. The chances we create are so clear. We have to score goals. Savio had two, Jeremy had two and Tijjani had another one that they have to score at this level."
This matter should correct itself as the season progresses, as most statistical anomalies of this calibre usually do. Even after his form circled the drain last term, Foden finished with 10 goals in all competitions. If he stays fit and on form, you'd expect that number to move closer to 20. Fit-again duo Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki have shown a knack for goal involvements throughout their careers that Doku and Savinho generally haven't.
As it is, they're leaning heavily on a big man with a bigger appetite for goals. There are probably worse problems to have.