Gary Neville says ‘brilliant’ Man City player has got a lot better this season

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Gary Neville thinks Pep Guardiola has a player in his Manchester City squad who has improved a lot from last season.

The opening phase of the 2025/26 season has been a mixed one for Man City as two defeats in their opening five matches has not been ideal; however, there have been some positive points to take away.

Although Man City currently sit seven points behind leaders Liverpool, Guardiola will be happy with Jeremy Doku’s start to the season, how fast Tijjani Reijnders has settled in, and the rapid start Erling Haaland has made to the campaign.

Speaking about the Norwegian superstar after the Arsenal match, Neville admitted that he loves the striker and believes he has gone up another level in his game.

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Gary Neville is in love with Erling Haaland

Haaland continued his impressive start to the season on Sunday as the 25-year-old opened the scoring for Man City against Arsenal, making it seven goals in six matches in all competitions.

Rio Ferdinand was impressed by Haaland during Sunday’s clash, and the Norwegian has also been receiving praise from another Man United legend, as Neville admitted at the weekend that the superstar forward has stepped up massively this season for City.

“I love Haaland. I think he’s a brilliant centre forward. I think he stepped up enormously in the last couple of weeks in terms of his leadership and his general performance,” the pundit said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

“You know, at the moments in sort of his last three years, four years, we’ve seen him not touch the ball and not look interested at times in the game, but he’s really engaged.”

After an underwhelming 2024/25 campaign, Haaland has proved many people wrong this season, and if Guardiola’s men are to experience success over the coming months, the superstar striker will have a big part to play in it.

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How Erling Haaland’s start compares to his other Man City seasons

Haaland made a rapid start to his Man City career during the 2022/23 season, with the striker scoring nine goals in his opening five Premier League matches, which included two hat-tricks.

That would be followed up by seven in five the campaign after, while last time around the superstar produced a very impressive 10 in five.

Despite starting the current season off impressively, it is actually Haaland’s worst beginning to a campaign since he moved from Borussia Dortmund during the summer of 2022, which shows the level the Man City star has been operating at.

Although the striker has scored fewer than in past campaigns, he has contributed more overall to his team, and the impact of this will be interesting to see over the course of the season.