The conceder of the penalty was Quinten Timber of the Timber twins.

Half-time: Manchester City 1-0 Feyenoord

45 min: Quite the release of energy after that goal. Relief all round. Haaland didn’t do much smiling. Guardiola looked happier than he has for a while but was no Cheshire Cat in his response. He and Juanma are still deep in discourse.

Goal! Manchester City 1-0 Feyenoord (Haaland, 44 pen)

Penalty for Manchester City

40 min: Haaland in space but an exemplary block by Hancko gets it done.

38 min: Steve Waterhouse gets in touch: “Radu Petrescu; the Spurs mash up you never knew we needed. But we did.”

Matt Stephens gets in touch: “I watched Pep’s re-signing video interview earlier today. In his previous one two years ago, he was beaming, declaring “ I love it!” In this video he states that he felt obliged or compelled to stay. The body language was all shaking heads and furrowed brows. It might be wishful thinking on my part, but I feel the rest of this year is not going to turn out well for City. Pep could well change his mind and depart next summer.”

Big call, let’s see. But I like your style.

37 min: Ooof. Hwang thrashes in a shot that Nunes has to get in the way of. Then City, again set off by Ederson, their key playmaker these days, sets off a counter. A corner results from Foden’s shot and there’s more grappling by Haaland. Ake gets to it and heads wide.

35 min: The Etihad Campus is filling with groans. City mount an attack, Foden skating through but his ball to Haaland is blocked. The fans are getting behind the team at last. They need something to lift them.

33 min: Richard Hirst gets in touch: “Timber playing for Arsenal, Timber playing for Feyenoord: if only Forest were in action.”

We need Chopper Harris on the case.

32 min: Yeah, not much doing here. City are way off it, aren’t they? They’re good enough to win this, but the thrill has gone. And Igor Paixao, the Feyenoord forward, gets a sniff, though his shot is no trouble to Ederson.

29 min: John de Wolf is the on the Feyenoord bench. John de Wolf, once of Wolves, and involved in this all-time FA Cup classic fully 30 seasons ago.

27 min: City…it’s not really happening for them. Feels like their best football is some way off. On the bench, Guardiola and Juanma Lillo are both muttering away. Juanma looks a bit like Kevin Keegan.

25 min: The Feyenoord fans taunting the home fans. The home fans find some voice in response. The language is not to be repeated here.

23 min: Feyenoord mount a proper attack, and after the ball whistles past Ederson, a quick counter ensues. Wellenreuther makes a fine save from Foden, and City have a corner. Haaland is involved in all sorts of grappling, and that delays a corner that’s eventually cleared.

21 min: Some City chanting. To Oasis’s She’s Electric. Quinten Timber, the brother of Arsenal’s Timber, is making himself busy. Twin brother, in fact.

19 min: Feyenoord attempt to press high and succeed only in setting up a City attack. That falls flat, too, Foden crowded out. The Dutch team seem to be growing in confidence.

17 min: Some Haaland anger as he chases down a pass and hounds the defender, only for an offside to be called. Pep, in puffer jacket, looks just as anguished.

15 min: Jack Grealish attempts the rarely seen tap-corner. He succeeds only in setting up a Feyenoord attack. Gvardiol sweeps up.

14 min: Wellenreuther slides out to stop Nunes. City prompting and probing. Feyenoord really sitting back and suffering. There’s a handball shout as it next goes to Nunes. Nothing doing.

13 min: Grealish gets a chance. Wellenreuther had decided to play out of goal and the ball is recovered and played in. The shot rattles away – off Foden. Lots of eagerness, lots of possession, it will come, but it’s not coming yet.

11 min: Foden seems to be manning the left where you might expect Grealish to be. This time, his ball finds Haaland, who can only poke at the ball.

10 min: First chance, a header by Haaland, flicked down and Wellenreuther makes a fine save. Initially, Foden’s cross had missed a rather statuesque Haaland.

8 min: Jack Grealish trying to get involved; he’s been peripheral so far – and for much of the season. City retain the ball. And retain and retain.

7 min: Is a lack of tactical fouls costing City? Someone might have the stats. Maybe those aged legs are struggling to keep up with speedy opponents. The passing tonight has been a bit ponderous, too.

6 min: Gundogan is in the central role, the Rodri position. Nunes attempts to wriggle through – he’s in the role of ball carrier tonight. Feyenoord are sat deep. And try to send away Carranza, who is on the end of a tactical foul.

4 min: City are doing what you’d expect City to do, lots of passes, dominating possession. That said, they’ve done that for spells of all the games they lost. Rico Lewis takes a whack, from two defenders at once. But he’s OK.

3 min: Bernardo Silva – the captain – spins and twists. Haaland wants it, Gundogan gets it, and his shot is blocked. Foden doesn’t do much with the corner.

Away we go in Manchester

So, the players shake hands, and soon enough, they will be kicking off. The Etihad is under capacity, we are told.

At the Etihad, they’re holding another light show, though not like that one for Rodri.

By the way, Niall McVeigh is providing the updates on the rest of the games from his chair.

News from elsewhere, relevant to City: Julian Alvarez – remember him? – has scored twice for Atletico at Sparta Prague. They replaced him with…Savinho?

Krishna gets in touch: “Hello John (or is it Scott under a new pseudonym?)

“Lose to Spurs. Then lose to Arne’s successor. And finally lose to Arne himself. Certainly Pep would not like such orderly things, a narrow win today followed by a draw this weekend is what I predict.”

Yes, it is John. Standing in for the great man.

The headlines: De Bruyne still on the bench, and so is Gimenez. Walker dropped, as is Savinho.

In: Nathan Ake, Matheus Nunes and Jack Grealish. Out: Walker, Savinho and John Stones, who isn’t in the squad at all.

The teams are in

As ever, Jonathan Wilson has been thinking deeply against this unexpected malaise.

And yet something is different. According to Opta, City have had the third-easiest run of fixtures of any club from the start of this Premier League season, yet if they lose at Anfield next week (and Liverpool are the side Guardiola has lost to second-most often) they will be 11 points behind the leaders. The aura has gone; opponents are sensing blood in the water. This is like Chelsea in 2015-16, or Manchester United under David Moyes, or Liverpool in the early 1990s. Sides no longer face them seeking merely to avoid embarrassment; they believe there is a chance of a notable result.

City aren’t old, OK? Not according to Pep, that is.

Missing for City: Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic and, of course, Rodri.

That the rest look tired is also a big problem.

For Feyenoord: Santiago Gimenez will be a big miss, and he’s doubtful with a thigh injury.

Brian Priske, the Feyenoord coach, Arne Slot’s successor on City: “For me they are still one of the best teams in the world, a world-class team. We’ve seen a lot of their games and, for example, at the weekend against Spurs they were really unlucky. We know we have to play a perfect match to get a positive result, especially defensively.

More Pep: “In this situation we have to be more direct in our principles. Don’t change much, in fact less than ever. One day we’re going to win a game and our mind will be clear. I hope it will be [against Feyenoord], if not Sunday [against Liverpool]. But the desire is there to change it and we’re going to try.”

Does this mean they *are* going direct?

And Kevin De Bruyne: “It has been a bit chaotic. I have seen so many people passed around the medical area. Seeing who is playing, who is not, people who shouldn’t be playing but did with an injury; in these games we were all over the place. Everyone is down but we have to move on.”

Some Pep quotes from his press conference: “I still have the feeling that this season we will still do very good things. I don’t give up and I have a feeling we will be there. We will congratulate the team that takes our crown because they deserve it, not because we gave it to them. [When] you are defending a legacy, tradition, success it is so difficult to handle.”

Preamble