No coach has found a way to stop Erling Haaland in his past 12 matches, the striker scoring in each and 22 times in all competitions for club and country. Pep Guardiola knows most about the Norwegian’s talents and jokingly suggested a plan to keep him out: “Four centre-backs.” There are no straightforward answers, especially as so many have tried and failed.

On Sunday Aston Villa and Unai Emery will be tasked with formulating a strategy to keep Haaland quiet. Not that the Manchester City player is particularly perturbed by not being involved for much of a match. His touches are infrequent but very often telling. The focus generally against Haaland is preventing the ball from reaching him but with City’s array of creative talents, that is easier said than done.

Haaland comes alive inside the box, his ability to know where the ball will end up and his movement making defending against him a nightmare. At Villarreal on Tuesday he anticipated where Rico Lewis would put a cross and beat the centre-back to turn the ball home and give City the lead in their 2-0 win.

When Wolves beat City 2-1 in September 2023 they restricted Haaland...