Manchester City continued their fine form at the weekend, defeating Brentford 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
Erling Haaland scored two more goals as Manchester City made it four wins out of four, and there is now daylight at the top of the table with Liverpool losing to Nottingham Forest.
City conceded inside the first minute, with John Stones’ poor clearance finding Yoane Wissa.
But it was Haaland to the rescue as he scored twice more to take his tally to nine for the season, which is which is a new record. His first was a brilliant first-time finish on his right foot after a little ball through from Kevin De Bruyne.
His second was a long ball over the top from Ederson, with Haaland finishing exquisitely.
The second goal was talked about in-depth in the latest video on Ben Foster’s YouTube channel, with the former goalkeeper left amazed over how Haaland orchestrated it.
Ben Foster shares why Erling Haaland’s second goal v Brentford was actually ‘genius’
As soon as Ederson’s ball bounced into space, City fans knew Haaland would score.
He has been in that kind of mood so far this season where he looks like he will finish every chance he gets.
He has a 45% goal conversation rate so far (via BBC Sport) which is just superb, and the big Norwegian looks on course for another season of breaking records.
Fans were left drooling by Haaland’s finish on the second goal. But for Foster, it was all about the way he made space and how he nudged Ethan Pinnock out of the way while he was watching the ball.
He said: “This passage of play from when Ederson kicks the ball, Haaland is running alongside Pinnock. Pinnock at this point is thinking ‘I don’t enjoy this’. He’s thinking ‘Oh no, how have you let me be isolated alone with Erling Haaland?’
“As he’s running I watch Haaland. He sees the ball and the ball is probably still only on the halfway line. And he completely takes his eyes off the ball, just has a little glance at Pinnock, runs directly in front of him and uses all of his body. Just goes ‘And stop’, nudges Pinnock out of the way, game over.
“It’s so clever, it is so, so clever. You need to watch it back, everybody. If you get chance, just go back on to the Premier League YouTube channel and watch this. It’s genius it is. The defender doesn’t even know what’s going on.”
Haaland is as intelligent as he is ruthless
Coaches up and down the country will be showing clips of this goal by Haaland to their centre-forwards.
It was quite simply a fantastic show of intelligence from the 24-year-old, who used his physical attributes to absolute perfection.
The £375,000-a-week superstar knew Pinnock had eyes only for the ball and was moving backwards. It therefore only took Haaland to hold his position for Pinnock to bounce off him to create the space.
Once the ball had gone through, there was no chance for Pinnock to recover given Haaland’s speed after a head start.
Haaland – who is ‘making a mockery of the Premier League’ in the eyes of Jason Cundy – is known first and foremost for his ruthless finishing. But it is about time his intelligence and awareness are placed alongside that.
