Lethal Erling Haaland keeps Manchester City in title hunt

ON THE SPOT: Manchester City's Erling Haaland scores his side's second goal of the game from the penalty spot during the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire

MAN CITY 3 WOLVES 0 

Erling Haaland had the perfect response to Pep Guardiola’s midweek rant with a 14-minute hat-trick that hinted that the defending champions Manchester City may yet give Arsenal a run for their money.

A “happy flowers” club was how the demanding City manager disparagingly referred to his club after their laboured come from behind win over Tottenham.

But as long as the Norwegian is in this sort of form, even a sub-par City could be in full bloom come May, especially if Arsenal show any signs of weakness at the top.

It was the fourth hat-trick of Haaland’s sensational debut season in English football as he reached 25 league goals - a tally that would have won him the Golden Boot in each of the past four seasons.

City legend Sergio Aguero holds the record for the most hat-tricks in Premier League history, with 12. But it is a sobering thought for City’s rivals that Haaland has reached a third of that total already, just halfway through his first season.

As Haaland continues to re-write those record books on a weekly basis, the 22-year-old also set a mark for the fastest player to reach four hat-tricks, needing just 19 games to get there.

For comparison’s sake, he beat the old mark, held by Ruud van Nistelrooy, who needed 65 matches to grab his fourth Premier League hat-trick.

The Premier League season record of 34 goals, held jointly by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer in the early 1990s, is surely a formality for Haaland, should he remain fit.

But statistics tell only half this story. More importantly, from a City point of view, the win also looked more like the sort of performance Guardiola has been looking for of late and, frankly, not been witnessing.

Not that the Catalan was getting too carried away by one victory.

“Today, we made a step but it’s just one game,” Guardiola said. “There were a few things that I liked. It’s getting better. The message is clear: it’s just one game.

“I have to wait. There are things… we have a lack of concentration. There are many details. The reality is that we are still behind Arsenal.

“The message is clear: this is just one game, we have to see in the future.” 

With the crowd, who were also criticised by Guardiola in midweek, also responding, City dominated, without troubling keeper Jose Sa unduly, but finally broke Wolves’ resilience five minutes before the interval.

Inevitably, it was Haaland, with his 29th goal of the season, who broke the deadlock as he rose above the defence to head in a Kevin De Bruyne cross from six yards.

It was the first time the two City stars had connected on a league goal since the derby massacre of United in October and was a sign that Haaland was returning to the sort of lethal form he showed through the autumn.

His second was less spectacular, coming from the penalty spot three minutes after the restart, but was just as important as it removed any danger of a Wolves comeback.

Ruben Neves had little complaint when he was judged to have brought down Ilkay Gundogan in the Wolves area and Haaland finished clinically from the spot.

His hat-trick goal, just six minutes later, was an even easier finish but indicative of Haaland’s sense of being in the right place at the right time.

A disastrous clearance by Jose Sa fell directly to Riyad Mahrez who had the simple task of squaring the ball for Haaland to steer the ball into a virtually empty net from 10 yards.

It took the Norwegian onto 25 league goals for the season, 31 in all competitions, with virtually half the campaign still to play.

Indeed, his league tally is more than twice the 12 goals Wolves have managed all season and more than nine of the 20 Premier League clubs, including Chelsea, have scored so far this term.

“When we lost the Community Shield to Liverpool, all the debate before the West Ham game was about, he will not adapt to the Premier League,” said Guardiola.

“And when he scores goals he is the solution and when he does not he is the problem.

“He is not a player to be dropped, we have to adapt and I think they are doing pretty well. His numbers are incredible, as many goals as he has scored already. But the reality is, we are still behind Arsenal.” 

Even after Haaland was brought off, with only an hour gone, the rout should have continued.

Mahrez had an effort ruled out for offside, his replacement Julian Alvarez was denied by Sa and Gundogan missed an easy, free header at the far post from a Bernardo Silva cross.

Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson 6; Lewis 6 (Ake 45, 6), Akanji 7, Stones 6, Laporte 6; De Bruyne 8 (Silva 76, 6), Rodri 7 (Phillips 76, 6), Gundogan 6; Mahrez 7 (Palmer 80, 6), Haaland 9 (Alvarez 60, 6), Grealish 7. 

Substitutes (not used): Ortega, Walker, Dias, Cancelo.

Wolves (4-3-3): Sá 5; Semedo 5, Collins 7, Kilman 7, Bueno 5 (Ait-Nouri 81); Nunes 5, Neves 6, Lemina 5 (Podence 67, 7); Hee-chan 6 (Moutinho 45, 5), Jiménez 5 (Cunha 45, 5), Traoré 5 (Sarabia 45, 6). 

Substitutes (not used): Sarkic, Jonny, Toti, Costa.

Referee: D Coote 5.