“Just a Monster”
Another hat-trick, another record – Erling Haaland amazes not only football England, but even his coach Pep Guardiola, who strives for perfection: “We have this incredible feeling that he always looks hungry and is so competitive. The numbers are scary,” said the Manchester City manager after Sunday’s impressive 6-3 win over arch-rivals Manchester United.
Like his strike partner Phil Foden, Haaland scored half of the goals with a hat-trick. The 23-year-old Norwegian managed the feat of scoring three goals in a row in his third home game – becoming the first player in Premier League history. “I’ve never scored three hat-tricks in three home games. It’s wonderful,” Haaland summed up on the BBC. And that in just eight appearances in the English championship – a rate that is unique in league history. For example, Michael Owen, who follows in this ranking, needed 48 games, Ruud van Nistelrooy 59 and Fernando Torres 64 games.
After only eight #PL , @ErlingHaaland already has as many hat-tricks as Cristiano Ronaldo, Jamie Vardy and Frank Lampard (3) #MCIMUN pic.twitter.com/ovvhBBNVp0
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 2, 2022
In the ranking of the most Premier League hat-tricks since 2000, the Norwegian, who recently made the decisive reasons for his decision to switch to Manchester City public in a documentary, catapulted himself into the top 20. For comparison: Cristiano Ronaldo, who was left on the bench by United coach Erik ten Hag in the derby, needed 232 games for three PL hat-tricks, with a whopping 12 in 275 games, Sergio Agüero still leads this ranking by a considerable margin in front of Thierry Henry (8/241) and Harry Kane (8/287) – this mark also seems by no means unattainable for the Norwegian, whose contract with the Skyblues runs until 2027.
Haaland also set a new record in the history book of the Manchester derby in the Premier League with 5 goal contributions on Sunday. With the Leeds-born left foot, Manchester City now has the top scorer (14) and Kevin De Bruyne, the top scorer (8) in Europe’s top leagues this season. “Not bad! We scored six goals, what can you say? It’s incredible to win at home and score six goals, yes, it’s nice,” said the goalscorer, who joined Manchester from Borussia Dortmund earlier this season. “Just a monster,” wrote his former BVB team-mate Mats Hummels on Twitter, “it’s good that he’s now used to other countries.”
Haaland has now played eleven games for the English champions and scored a phenomenal 17 times. Together with ex-Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona) and exceptional scorer Kylian Mbappé (Paris Saint-Germain), the Norwegian also leads the list of goalscorers in the Champions League with three goals in two games. On Wednesday (9:00 p.m.) Man City welcomes FC Copenhagen in the premier class.
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