Pep Guardiola hailed Erling Haaland for his game-changing performance in Manchester City’s victory against Southampton on Saturday.
City made light work of an opponent that knocked them out of the Carabao Cup in January, winning 4-1 to close the gap between themselves and Premier League leaders Arsenal to five points.
By the manager’s own admission, Pep Guardiola’s side weren’t at their usual best in the first half, but it was Haaland who got the ball rolling when he headed in Kevin de Bruyne’s cross just before half-time.
Jack Grealish doubled the advantage early in the second period, before turning provider to set Haaland up for a spectacular scissor kick.
The City fans behind the goal could hardly believe it when the Norwegian striker contorted his body to slam the ball goalward; it’s hard to imagine a more spectacular way to score your 30th league goal of the season.
Haaland is well on course to smash the record for goals scored in a Premier League season, currently shared by Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer with 34.
What did Pep say?
At just 22 years old, Haaland is already being mentioned in the same breath as legendary players. Even Pep Guardiola – never someone to overly hype up his players – couldn’t help himself.
“The second goal was amazing. It is not easy to pick the ball up in the sky and put it on the grass. His talent is really good. We need him,” the City boss said after the game.
“The first half was not our best level but he [Haaland] changed the game. As a top scorer we lived two incredible decades with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi but he is on that level.
“You see how many games Erling has played during his professional career and you compare the goals he has scored in that time to Messi and Cristiano, it’s quite similar.
“I think Messi is a more complete player. The other two, Cristiano and Haaland, are like machines.
“He scores a lot of goals. I am very happy with 65 minutes after injury and he helped us again.”
Of course, Haaland has a long way to go to match the numbers put up by Messi and Ronaldo over the years. However, one stat suggests otherwise.
There have only been three individual seasons this century in which a player has scored non-penalty goals at a rate of over 1.15 per 90 minutes.
Lionel Messi did it in 2012/13, Haaland did it in 2019/20 and now the Norwegian striker is doing it again.
City have now won eight games on the bounce, and have taken maximum points from their last five Premier League outings.
