Haaland back to his best in City romp

PLENTY has changed at City in the last 14 months, yet the sight of Ilkay Gundogan jogging onto the Etihad pitch felt like nothing had changed at all.

- JOE BRAY

Erling Haaland was crashing in penalties and rounding goalkeepers, Kevin De Bruyne is still running the show, and the Blues defence are still susceptible to conceding direct goals.

John Stones was even back in midfield. It felt just like the 2023 run-in with most of City's main protagonists in their familiar roles.

City beat Ipswich in four first-half minutes, a ruthless welcome to the Premier League despite falling behind. Even with that early shock, they were never in danger of losing this game. The story was all about Gundogan on Saturday, and that story all started with a call.

Pep Guardiola had cornered Gundogan in the tunnel of the Camping World Stadium in Orlando during a storm delay last month and quizzed him on a lack of contact over the previous year. "You didn't text. You were my neighbour and you didn't text once," the manager joked.

Gundogan looked a little sheepish, but for Guardiola when the message finally came it was well worth the wait. Gundogan is back at the Etihad after a whirlwind week that saw him quickly jettisoned at Barcelona and he knew exactly who to call when thinking of his next move.

The last time Gundogan wore the sky blue of City, he was hoisting the Champions League trophy high into the Istanbul sky. City's botched contract negotiations saw the German leave without a proper goodbye on Saturday he got a hero's welcome back.