Haaland secures second hat-trick in as many games as City storm past Forest

SETTING STANDARDS: Manchester City's Erling Haaland. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

MAN CITY 6 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 0

ERLING Haaland’s spectacular impact on English football continued in yet another Manchester City rout as the striker claimed his second hat-trick of the week for Pep Guardiola’s side.

No other player in Premier League history has scored two hat-tricks at the start of their career in fewer than the 21 games it took Demba Ba to achieve that mark - Haaland has needed five games to claim two, scoring nine goals in total so far.

It short, this was a night when another chapter was written in what is looking increasingly certain to be a legend that might even surpass Sergio Aguero in City history and, who knows, be one of the greatest ever in English football.

After all, even City’s record all-time goalscorer Aguero needed over three years and 95 league games to score his first two City hat-tricks.

Haaland has taken five games and less than a calendar month to do it.

“What he’s done in Norway, in Austria, in Germany, he has started to do here,” said Guardiola. “He didn’t touch the ball before his first goal. His first contact, he scored.

“We knew that and today, we had Julian (Alvarez) as well. We have an incredible two strikers, they have the talent to score goals, an incredible nose for it.”

The words are going to quickly cease to have much meaning when it comes to describing the Norwegian’s exploits and even the sheer weight of statistics that surround his excellence are beginning to be shrouded by one simple fact - the Premier League may be witnessing something it has never seen before in Haaland.

On Saturday, he plundered a 19-minute hat-trick in a come-from-behind win over Palace; last night he took all of 26 minutes to repeat the feat although, in case we felt short-changed by his latest effort, this was the perfect hat-trick: left-foot, right-foot, header.

By that point, Haaland had nine goals in his first five, well four-and-a-half, City appearances and was averaging a goal every 40 minutes for the season. Possibly even more importantly, his goals had come with lethal, unparalleled efficiency.

That third goal, after 39 minutes, saw him head into an empty net after Phil Foden had nodded to the far post and John Stones had kept the ball live by guiding it over to Haaland. It was the 101st time the striker had touched the ball in the league this season, a body of work which had brought him nine goals.

The first on this night came after 12 minutes and a well-worked corner which saw Foden deliver an excellent near-post lob which found Haaland, who held off Joe Worrall with prodigious strength, before poking the ball past Dean Henderson.

There was actually a chance for Forest debutant Renan Lodi to equalise, only for the defender to miss with a far-post header, although, as events transpired, it was hard to imagine that goal would have changed anything.

Haaland doubled his total on the night on 23 minutes and from a delightful passing move that saw Ilkay Gundogan feed the ball to Haaland who played in Foden. The England star selflessly squared for his team mate to roll the ball into an open net.

By the 25-minute mark, Haaland’s night had consisted of three touches and two goals - midfielder Rodri, by way of comparison, led City players with 33 touches.

The rout was on and Stones had a “goal” ruled out for offside as he turned in a Haaland header before Haaland completed his hat-trick and, after the restart, the traffic was relentless and mostly one-way.

On 50 minutes, Joao Cancelo made it 4-0 when Bernardo Silva found him in space and the full-back sent an unstoppably 20-yard shot into the top corner.

Forest boss Steve Cooper, presumably mindful of the nine-goal thrashing Bournemouth received at Anfield on Saturday, at least saw his side make an effort.

But even as the inevitable substitutions traipsed on for Guardiola, the champions were hungry and ruthless; only a good covering tackle from Worrall denying Haaland yet another goal from a cross by the quietly effective City newboy Julian Alvarez.

In fact, Alvarez, to prove that Haaland was not the only goalscorer signed by Guardiola this summer, scored his first Premier League goal on 65 minutes, finishing with impressive ease from a defence-splitting Riyad Mahrez pass.

That was enough for Guardiola who soon took off Haaland, to avoid unnecessary risk, although the sight of him trudging off to be replaced by none other than Kevin De Bruyne was hardly a morale-booster for Forest.

Mahrez should have made it six when he raced onto a Gundogan long ball and planted his shot wide with the goal at his mercy, a timely reminder that goalscoring is not as easy as Erling Haaland makes it appear.

That said, Alvarez did a passable impression of his team mate three minuets from time, scoring his second and City’s sixth with a lethal 15-yard, left-foot shot after a deflected shot fell into his path.

Man City (4-4-2): Ederson 7; Walker 7, Stones 7 (Lewis 74, 6), Dias 7, Cancelo 7 (Gomez 68, 7); Silva 7, Gundogan 8, Rodri 7 (Mahrez 54, 7), Foden 8 (Palmer 54, 6); Alvarez 8, Haaland 10 (De Bruyne 69, 7). 

Substitutes (not used) Ortega, Gomes, Knight, Wilson-Esbrand.

Nottingham Forest (5–3-1-1): Henderson 6; N Williams 5, Worrall 4, Kouyate 4 (Biancone 78, 5), McKenna 6, Lodi 6 (Toffolo 69, 5); Yates 5 (Colback 69, 5), Freuler 6, O’Brien 5; Gibbs-White 6 (Dennis 58, 5); Johnson 6 (Awoniyi 58, 5). 

Substitutes (not used) Hennessey, Cook, Lingard, Surridge.

Referee: P Tierney 7