Manchester City have enjoyed their fair share of unbeaten months during Pep Guardiola's tenure but few have been as emphatic as March.
The international break cut March's progress short but four games in the opening weeks brought four wins, four clean sheets and 16 goals scored. City kicked off the month with a commanding 2-0 win at home to Newcastle, following that up with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Crystal Palace to keep the pressure on league leaders Arsenal.
That was that for league action, with the second-leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against RB Leipzig hanging in the balance for all of 22 minutes, Erling Haaland's penalty the first of five for the Norwegian and seven for City on the night. Guardiola's side put in a scintillating second-half performance that evening, blowing Leipzig away and setting up a quarter-final draw against Bayern Munich to come.
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City ended March with a potentially tricky FA Cup tie against Burnley, with Vincent Kompany's Etihad return and the form of his side typical of a major upset. Unfortunately for the Clarets, Haaland thought otherwise as the 22-year-old bagged three more while Julian Alvarez got two and Cole Palmer one in a 6-0 thumping of little mercy.
Nine goals in four matches from Haaland was an outstanding month even by his standards, and the Blues striker ran away with the MEN's Manchester City Player of the Month award for March, taking 64.8 per cent (252) of the 389 total votes cast.
Those strikes took Haaland to 42 goals across al competitions this season and past the rate of one goal a game - he is now on 1.14. His five against Leipzig equalled the record set by Lionel Messi and Luiz Adriano in doing so in one Champions League match - and it could have been more, had he not come off with half an hour left.
Second in the standings was Kevin De Bruyne who took 20.8% of the vote. The 31-year-old started March with two tough games against Newcastle and Palace, producing little in terms of creative spark as Guardiola urged him to return to basics. But that second-leg thrashing of Leipzig saw him do that and then some, running the show from midfield before curling in a wonderful goal of his own for number seven.
The Belgian started agains this old captain's Burnley side in the FA Cup and his quality shone through, with two classy assists to set up both of Alvarez's goals.
Last but by no means least, Ilkay Gundogan took third place with 14.4% (56) of the vote. City's club captain led his side through two tough league games to kick the month off before netting his fifth goal of the season in the win over Leipzig, arrowing home a clinical finish from just inside the box after Jack Grealish's cut-back.
Should City go on to claim the Premier League or Champions League come the end of the season, then Guardiola will look back on March as a defining month. Four clean sheets highlighted an absolute dominance throughout, with Haaland well and truly silencing the few doubters that remained.
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