Kyle Walker defends 'fantastic' Erling Haaland after Manchester City forward draws blank at Tottenham

• Kane's 267th Spurs goal enough to win it
• Haaland didn't even have shot on goal
• Was a peripheral figure throughout

WHAT HAPPENED? Despite netting 25 goals in the Premier League thus far, question marks were raised about Haaland's role in the Manchester City side after he failed to make any sort of impact during Manchester City's 1-0 loss to Antonio Conte's side on Sunday. The backline of Cristian Romero, Eric Dier and Ben Davies kept the Norwegian forward extremely quiet, not letting him test Hugo Lloris behind them.

WHAT THEY SAID: Speaking to Sky Sports after the game: Walker said: "Erling has been fantastic. No one says anything about Erling when he's scoring goals and we're winning. All of a sudden now we don't win or he doesn't score is it a problem, do we play better without Erling? I hear it all the time but no one's complaining when he's got I think it's 25 goals already this season. He's a fantastic player and look this is the team we have now from now until the end of the season."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: When looking at statistics compared to last season, Haaland hasn't actually improved City's attack as they've netted the same amount of Premier League goals as this point last season - 53. What he has done has created a much more efficient way for the side to score goals without sharing them around as much.

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WHAT NEXT FOR HAALAND? While he failed to get on the scoresheet in north London, there's no doubt Haaland will be back on track soon enough. He'll lead the Manchester City line against Aston Vlla in a week's time barring any injuries between now and then.