Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick against Wolves as Manchester City maintained the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal with a 3-0 win.
Wolves stifled the home side for much of the first half before Haaland took charge, heading in Kevin De Bruyne’s cross. He added a second from the spot early in the second half and completed the hat-trick with a straightforward finish after Jose Sa’s error.
Only his substitution spared Wolves. The goals take Haaland’s Premier League total for the season to 25 in just 19 appearances. The mini drought of two games ended with his header against Tottenham on Thursday evening. A new scoring streak has begun.
Haaland’s treble was also a strong riposte to claims that City had become a worse team, in terms of style at least, since the striker’s arrival in the summer.
Guardiola said: “When he scores I don’t know how many hat-tricks and goals, (people say) he is the solution in our team and when he does not score a goal he is a problem in our team. This is a grey vision of this kind of things.
We know his quality, we know each other. He is not a player to be dropped. We cannot play a false nine with him, we have to adapt with him and I think we are doing quite well.”
The result moved City to within two points of Arsenal at the full-time whistle with the Gunners playing one of their two games in hand later in the afternoon. Wolves remain just outside the relegation zone, ahead of Bournemouth on goal difference.
Skysports