Manchester City maintained the pressure on Arsenal after a comprehensive victory over Wolves on Saturday afternoon.
Four goals from Erling Haaland and a solitary Julian Alvarez strike helped Pep Guardiola's side on their way to a routine three points, during which a win never appeared in doubt.
It means City remain one point behind Arsenal with a game in hand and will now fancy their chances of overtaking Mikel Arteta's men in the next fortnight after another convincing display.
Reacting to the Blues' latest success were the national medial, whose thoughts on proceedings can be found below.
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'What happens when a team gets into the habit of winning'
Jonathan Wilson of The Guardian wrote:
"Pep Guardiola’s side have not come near to scaling the heights of last season but remain unbeaten for five months.
"Perhaps this is just what happens when a team gets into the habit of winning: they keep on winning. They don’t have to dominate, they don’t have to carve out dozens of chances, they don’t have to hold possession for hours at a time. They just have to be, and by the quality of their being, they find goals when they need them.
"Manchester City aren’t Real Madrid, not quite. They’re not yet able to doze away from kick-off, watching idly on as the opposition squander a handful of chances before, yawning, taking the first chance that comes their way. But equally they have gone 32 games unbeaten since the defeat at Aston Villa in December without being anywhere near the exceptional standards they set last season. Having exceptional players capable of turning games in a moment really helps.
"One of them, Phil Foden, was named Football Writers’ Player of the Year this week, due reward for a season in which he has reached new levels of maturity and influence. He is still only 23, but the days when there were fears that Pep Guardiola was holding him back by not fully trusting him seem a long, long time ago. Even his cheeky scamp performance away to Atlético Madrid the season before last, gamesmanship with a grin, seems another age. Foden is a senior player these days and plays with the responsibility that goes with that status."
'Haaland in wrecking mode'
James Ducker of The Telegraph wrote:
"The first thought was how has he jumped that high from practically a standing start but then Erling Haaland is not like the rest of us mere mortals. He has his own video game character now but there was always something other-worldly about him and, as he rose above poor Nelson Semedo as if being hoisted from the ground by some sort of invisible force, you just had to admire the sheer athleticism of the whole operation.
"There was still, you know, the scoring bit to do, though, and there was just as much to admire in the way Manchester City’s No. 9 steered the most precise header back across goal and into the far corner from Rodri’s cross.
"Jamie Carragher suggested it reminded him of a goal Cristiano Ronaldo scored for Juventus against Sampdoria and there are undoubted similarities between the players’ ability to hang in the air like Michael Jordan did for so many years on a basketball court. That was his second goal.
"Numbers three and four were still to follow as City ticked off another win in their bid to become the first top flight English side to win four consecutive league titles. Arsenal have been good - oh so good this season - but they must worry City are simply not going to falter over the next fortnight. Liverpool know only too well how that feels and there were certainly no signs of City slipping up here against Wolves, not with Haaland in wrecking mode."
'Quite a statement'
Jonathan Northcroft of The Times wrote:
"Well, they didn’t last long: Arsenal’s chink of daylight in the title race and Roy Keane’s theory that Erling Haaland is like a League Two player. Performing with high skill, brutal hunger and physical assets the opposition could not match, Haaland reasserted claims to be the best. And all of that was also true of his team.
"Demolishing well-coached, always-competitive, often-tricky Wolverhampton Wanderers was quite a statement by Manchester City, a few hours after Arsenal asked a question about their nerve by beating Bournemouth in the earlier game. They narrowed a four-point gap back to a single point, have a game in hand, and can top the table by winning their next game, at Fulham. And, in Haaland, they have a talisman who is right back on form.
"The Norwegian scored four goals in a 42-minute burst, completing a hat-trick in one half of a match for an extraordinary sixth time in two seasons for City, and if two of his strikes were penalties those were still brilliantly dispatched. The other two were of undisputable class, a header of heft and intelligence and an emphatic finish after an exquisite touch. The Etihad loved seeing him back to his pillaging peak, and gasped when he went up for bicycle kick, set to convert a Phil Foden cross for a fifth goal in the most spectacular style, only for Toti Gomes to spoil their fun by heading the ball away."'
'A shift in City's identity'
Richard Jolly of The Independent wrote:
"After a glimpse of Manchester City’s stylish past came an illustration of their powerful present. David Silva was on the pitch at the Etihad Stadium before kick-off, his first return since his 2021 departure allowing the City faithful to pay tribute to an old favourite. Erling Haaland took the field after that, scored four goals in under an hour and left City only requiring three more wins to clinch a record fourth consecutive title.
"Silva captained them to the first but if he was upstaged on his return, that is probably how a self-effacing figure prefers it. If there has been a shift in City’s identity, from the small Spanish passer to the giant Norwegian scorer, the midfielder may be far more emblematic of Pep Guardiola’s natural philosophy than the striker. But goals have an eloquence of their own and on days like this, when Haaland is marauding and magnificent, there is a pragmatic logic to recalibrating the side around him.
"A ninth City hat-trick, a third this season and, after one in 2022, a second against Wolves extended his remarkable record. He made 59 starts in the Bundesliga and scored 62 goals. After 59 in the Premier League, he has 61. This season, when his form has been mixed, he still has 36 goals in all competitions, 25 of them in the Premier League. A second successive Golden Boot looks a formality. In due course, he will probably join Silva among the figures granted their own statue outside the Etihad. They are, though, very different players. If one of the few criticisms of Silva was that, at times, he could be too infrequent a scorer, Haaland has the capacity to run amok when he senses weakness."
