Manchester City have headed into the international break reminding the rest of the Premier League that despite it being early days, they remain the team to beat.
Scoring eight goals and conceding two in their first three games, Pep Guardiola’s men have been utterly dominant.
It seems like the City players do not seem to be lacking any motivation within their ranks despite winning four Premier League titles in a row.
In May, Bernardo Silva claimed Arsenal will remain title contenders and as a result, Manchester City cannot afford to start the season slowly.
It seems as if the Portuguese maestro’s message has been seriously taken into consideration at the Etihad Stadium.
But with only three games played, it is still early days into the campaign.
Shearer explains the difficulty of “sublime” Erling Haaland skill against West Ham
Erling Haaland certainly seems to have decided to help Manchester City achieve Bernardo’s desire as he has spearheaded them to their three wins so far.
The £51 million striker seems to be ready to be the leading man behind City’s title charge like he was in his debut campaign by having a potentially legendary season.
Tony Cascarino claims Haaland will score six hat-tricks in total in the Premier League this season; emphasising just how much he looks in his groove so far.
However, Alan Shearer was left particularly impressed by a subtle piece of skill that the Norwegian executed in Manchester City’s 3-1 win against West Ham.
Shearer zeroed in on Haaland’s second goal in the 30th minute and how he shifted the ball from his right to his left foot before generating an incredible amount of power that led to his second goal against the Hammers.
The pundit said on The Rest Is Football podcast: “We know he is a great finisher. We have spoken about him so many times, and we will continue to speak about him but his balance, you know, his balance to be able to quickly shift the power to where he wants to put it and the way he opens everything up. And that isn’t easy.”
“I mean, the touch with his right foot to put it onto his left foot, you know, the one that he put high, just sublime.”
Erling Haaland is using both feet more often this season
It seems like one aspect of his game that Haaland seems to be working on in using both of his feet more often.
Like most left-footed players tend to be, the 24-year-old also seemed to barely put his right peg to use in the past.
But in the build-up to his second goal against West Ham as well as when he used his right foot to receive Bernardo’s pass before his winner against Chelsea, Haaland is clearly using his weaker foot a lot more often now.
Perhaps the two-time Premier League winner felt coming into this season that he could enhance this aspect of his game.
It goes without saying that his finish was impeccable, as Shearer emphasised.
Even against Ipswich, there was an instance when Haaland and Ilkay Gundogan were playing intricate give-and-go’s and before the former played a pass to Jack Grealish, he used his right foot to beat his man.
As Alan Shearer stated, the prolific marksman’s touch before his goal was a thing of beauty and it will be interesting to see whether he uses his weaker foot more often as the season progresses.
