Haaland has nine Premier League goals in nine matches for Manchester City this season. The team around him is six points behind Arsenal after three straight league defeats.

BBC Sport has published a video analysis titled “How do you stop Haaland?”, the kind of tactical puzzle that has defined every manager’s pre-match homework for four years. On the evidence of the past three weekends, the question has become almost academic. Rival teams are beating City without having to shut the striker down at all.

Three straight losses, Haaland in them anyway

Aston Villa won 2-1 at Villa Park on 24 October, with Haaland heading in a second-half equalizer before Nicolas Jackson restored Villa’s lead on the hour. A week later Brighton edged a 1-0 win at the Etihad Stadium through an 11th-minute Yasin Ayari strike, with Haaland held scoreless. Then on 7 November, Nottingham Forest ran out 3-1 winners at the City Ground, with Jair Cunha opening the scoring in the sixth minute and former City forward Liam Delap adding two more. Rayan Cherki pulled one back early in the second half.

It is the first time Manchester City have trailed at halftime in three consecutive Premier League games since 2007, predating the club’s Abu Dhabi takeover. Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Hull on the same weekend, courtesy of a 72nd-minute goal from Martin Odegaard, stretched their advantage at the top of the table to six points.

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Haaland himself has not been invisible in the slump. Against Forest he rounded goalkeeper Matz Sels in the 41st minute, only for Jair Cunha to clear his shot off the line. Three nights earlier he had rescued City in Germany, sliding in at the back post for a 78th-minute winner against RB Leipzig to complete a 3-2 Champions League comeback.

‘We cannot rely on Erling every game’

Pep Guardiola had addressed the dependence question on 3 November, before the Leipzig trip. He acknowledged what the BBC’s tactical video implies: that Haaland alone is not enough.

“For sure, when you have Erling on the pitch, it’s better because you know he’s going to score goals and is always there,” Guardiola told reporters. “At the same time, we cannot rely on Erling every game. We need the rest to also score goals.”

After the Forest defeat, Guardiola blamed the collapse on intensity and transition defending rather than his striker’s output, and insisted there was no panic with the international break arriving.

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Fulham at the Etihad on 21 November

Haaland, 26, returns to international duty with Norway this week. Manchester City host Fulham at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, 21 November, with the opportunity to close the gap on Arsenal and end a sequence that, until this autumn, had been unthinkable for the club.

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