Erling Haaland’s fourth hat-trick for Manchester City brought his season total of goals to 31 in all competitions as Pep Guardiola’s team thrashed relegation-threatened Wolves.
Haaland had been experiencing a dry period by his own exceedingly high standards.
However, the Norwegian destroyed Wolves in a 12-minute span on either side of halftime after snapping a three-game losing streak against Tottenham on Thursday.
To give the home team the lead at halftime, Haaland initially rose to head in a cross from Kevin de Bruyne.
As Wolves captain Ruben Neves fouled Ilkay Gundogan, he converted a penalty, and then he scored his third after Jose Sa’s pass out of his six-yard box went straight to Riyad Mahrez.
Over the course of City’s first 20 Premier League games, Haaland has already netted 25 goals. The previous record-holder for most goals at this point in the campaign was five, which was achieved by Luis Suarez in 2013–14.
With his current total, the Norwegian striker would have been eligible for the Golden Boot in more than half of the 30 seasons since the English top division’s renaming in 1992.
Additionally, he now has the same number of hat-tricks in the Premier League as Mo Salah and a third of Sergio Aguero’s record 12 from his wonderful ten years with Manchester City.
Only Alan Shearer, with five, has scored more hat tricks in a single season in the Premier League.
Haaland Put City Back in the Title
Guardiola remarked about the difficulty of keeping energy and commitment when you are so used to winning when he gave his spectacular outburst following the victory over Tottenham.
Haaland is crucial to this team because of this.
Three years ago, in Austria, the Norwegians won their last league championship. He won the German Cup with Borussia Dortmund as his final trophy.
Haaland is not one of the City players who would be unmotivated by the prospect of winning a sixth championship in as many years, and the way the second half of this season plays out could reveal whether or not this is the case.
After an hour, Guardiola decided there was no use in pressuring the striker and replaced him with World Cup winner Julian Alvarez.
The fact that Jack Grealish appears to be finding consistency is additional good news for City.
His teaser moves from the left are more reminiscent of his time at Aston Villa, and if Sa hadn’t made one outstanding save and Nathan Collins hadn’t been in the right spot at the right moment to clear another attempt, he would have scored in the first half.
Mahrez’s attempt was disallowed for offside, which allowed City to win easily and allowed Haaland to accept the applause of the home crowd at the conclusion.
Lopetegui Wolves Experience Setback
This was Julen Lopetegui’s first serious setback since taking over for Bruno Lage as Wolves manager during the World Cup.
Even when his team just escapes the relegation zone on goal differential, the former Spain and Real Madrid coach finds solace in the fact that there aren’t many more difficult tests than this one.
A shaky defense should be strengthened by the £3.3 million purchase of Craig Dawson from West Ham, and a team Lopetegui can work with will be furthered by Mario Lemina’s first start here and Pablo Sarabia’s debut, especially if Flamengo’s Joao Gomes can avoid Lyon’s clutches.
Although he does have a week to work on that before a vital month that sees his team play two teams currently below them, Southampton and Bournemouth, in back-to-back weeks, it is evident that he wants greater width from Wolves’ passing.
No one could ever accuse Lopetegui of lacking passion for his work. He and Neves were both issued cautions for disputing an apparent foul by City’s Rico Lewis on Hwang Hee-chan as the South Korean was ready to begin a lengthy run toward the City goal when Haaland changed the course of the game.