On Monday morning Erling Haaland was officially unveiled as a Manchester City player, rubber-stamping one of the most eagerly anticipated transfers in both Premier League and club history.
City and Pep Guardiola have been looking to sign an elite striker for two years now, after failed attempts to sign Lionel Messi, Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo. After activating the £51m release clause in Haaland's Borussia Dortmund contract last month, City now finally have their man.
Since arriving at Red Bull Salzburg in 2019 Haaland has established himself as one of the most ruthless goal-scorers in world football; he scored 115 goals in 116 club games for Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund, while scoring a further 20 in 21 outings for his country, Norway.
READ MORE: Breaking: Man City issue transfer statement to announce Erling Haaland signing
City clearly have no trouble scoring goals; their tally of 99 goals last season was the best in the Premier League, five more than Liverpool, a side many regard as being more clinical in front of goal.
However, what Haaland's two most recent goals show - a brace in Norway's 3-2 win against Sweden in the UEFA Nations League this week - is that he will improve the two weakest areas of City's attack.
The first of his goals was a brilliant header into the bottom corner. Loitering around the edge of the six-yard box, Haaland was a good two yards behind the closest defender when his teammate delivered a shallow in-swinging cross from the left flank.
Yet Haaland beat his marker to the ball with a combination of intelligent movement, timing and sheer hunger to win the ball. While City do score headers from time to time, they usually involve the likes of Aymeric Laporte or Rodri getting on the end of corners and free-kicks.
With City's attackers lacking the pure striking instincts that Haaland possesses, the Blues rarely score headers from central areas, unless left unmarked. Not since Sergio Aguero left have City had a striker with such a pure sense of goal.
With Kevin de Bruyne whipping balls into the box, you wouldn't bet against Haaland scoring plenty of headers and something-from-nothing chances next term.
Haaland's second of the game was an emphatic penalty, scored under in a high-pressure situation with Norway only one goal ahead.
The striker took a fairly straight run-up to leave the goalkeeper with no clue of which way he'd go, before curling his foot around the ball at the last moment to smash it into the right corner. The keeper dived the wrong way, but the spot-kick was hit with such venom is debatable whether he would have saved it anyway.
As has been well-documented, City have struggled from 12 yards in recent seasons. Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Ilkay Gundogan have all had spells as City's first-choice taker, but all have missed at inopportune moments.
Riyad Mahrez looked to have lifted the curse when he assumed penalty-taking duties, but his late miss against West Ham in the penultimate game of the season left City feeling nervy going into the final day.
Having scored 26 of the 28 spot-kicks he's taken during his career, it seems likely that the 21-year-old will became City's regular taker.
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