Expeditious. 38 minutes of play, Wednesday August 31 at the Etihad Stadium and Manchester City are already leading 3-0 against promoted Nottingham Forest. Three goals from Erling Haaland in the 12th, 23rd and 38th minutes, a hat-trick in 26 minutes. A performance of choice which launched the men of Pep Guardiola towards a new great success. “It was great, there is nothing else to say”, judged the player at the microphone of BT Sports at the end of the match, finally won 6-0 by his team, with a goal from João Cancelo and a brace from Julian Alvarez, another summer recruit.
By scoring a second consecutive hat-trick, the Norwegian striker set two new records for the English league. The 22-year-old became the fastest player to score two Premier League hat-tricks when he got there in his fifth game for City, while Demba Ba’s previous best mark was 21 games. Above all, he has already brought his total to nine achievements in his first five games, one more than Sergio Agüero, already in the jersey of City and Mick Quinn with Newcastle.
“The idea was to continue doing what we did in the second half against (Crystal) Palace, just play, play, play and we knew we would have chances. That’s exactly what we did and so, yeah, it was fun. I try to listen to Pep (Guardiola) as much as possible and to combine with the guys because they are incredible footballers and without them I wouldn’t be able to score goals,” he continued.
To those who wanted to minimize his performance with Borussia Dortmund (62 goals in 67 games) by claiming that the Bundesliga was of a lower level than the Premier League, the answer is scathing. Haaland is insatiable and his hot debut is just confirmation of his incredible talent. “That’s why I came here,” he exults. You can see, we’re playing so well, we feel good and we’re going to get even better. So that’s gonna be fun. Perhaps not for City’s future opponents.
