Who needs Erling Haaland?

In the week Manchester City secured a record-shattering ten year contract for their star striker, they scored four goals with their number nine barely having a touch at Ipswich.

And ahead of a week where City are set to spend £63m on another prolific attacker, three players sent a message to the club that they will not give up their places easily.

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Haaland sent a message of his own. He will always score goals so the only surprise at Ipswich was that it took four before he got among the fun. Phil Foden backed up his brace at Brentford with a double in front of the Sir Bobby Robson Stand in a brutal first half, with Jeremy Doku on target after the break and Mateo Kovacic thumping in the game-killing second goal.

The stats speak for themselves as City slowly climb out of their wretched run, and all of a sudden they are six unbeaten. They are still not 'back' and Pep Guardiola won't thank you for suggesting as much - but they are slowly putting the pieces back together in attack.

It was a slight surprise to see Doku in for Savinho, who has played well recently and used as a benchmark by the manager for Jack Grealish to improve. Doku responded with two goals and two assists in the FA Cup but was back on the bench at Brentford.

He showed his continued improvement at Ipswich with a goal and assist in the second half - but his first 45 minutes were arguably more impressive to Guardiola. He was the player who kept the tempo, waited for the run from De Bruyne, and assisted the assister for all three first half goals.

It was the role Grealish made his own in the treble season, sending another warning to the number ten of what he must do to play more. Doku essentially created five goals at Portman Road - over to you Jack.

Doku has three goals, three assists (and three 'pre-assists') in three games. Foden has five goals and four assists in four games. De Bruyne climbed to second in the City assist charts in Suffolk and now has five assists in three games.

Haaland has four goals in as many games, and even Mateo Kovacic ended the night with a goal and assist. Substitute James McAtee quietly has four goals in three appearances.

When Omar Marmoush arrives this week, he will do so with 34 goal contributions this season. But he will see a number of in-form attackers vying for his spot and he will have to earn it like anyone else.

City celebrated their first half goals by congratulating the creators as much as the scorers, and will go to Paris in the Champions League at least confident that they can score goals again. Ipswich hardly tested them after Foden's opener and the Brentford collapse will still be fresh in the memory, yet it's 22 goals in their last five games now and just three conceded.

The problem has been that those three have cost four points. So there is work to do, and much meaner defences to come up against - but those problems are easier to fix when Guardiola has multiple forwards all scoring and assisting again.

Guardiola was relatively calm on the touchline at Portman Road. There was no need for shouting, waving or worrying. City controlled a Premier League game from start to finish for the first time in forever. He hasn't had the luxury of such options going forward all season - and is about to add another goalscorer into the mix as well.