Manchester City welcomed Ipswich Town to the Etihad Stadium in their latest Premier League game.
With seven minutes on the clock, the newly promoted side got themselves ahead through Sammie Szmodics.
Pep Guardiola’s side then followed that up by scoring four goals before the final whistle to secure their second league win of the campaign.
After the match, one particular player in the City team found himself on the end of some significant praise for his efforts in this game.
Paul Merson hails Erling Haaland for Ipswich Town performance
After seeing Erling Haaland score his first hat-trick of the season against Ipswich, Paul Merson had this to say about the striker on Sky Sports Football (5:17 pm).
He said: “Scary, absolutely phenomenal.
“People go he doesn’t touch the ball that much and all that, but I would rather him touch the ball five times and score two goals than touch it 50 times and never look like scoring a goal.
“Phenomenal finisher.”
Haaland was in top form against Ipswich
As well as Merson, the Norway international has also been hailed by Ray Parlour recently, who backed Haaland to win another Golden Boot this season.
Since City shelled out £51m to sign the 24-year-old from Borussia Dortmund back in 2022, he has gone on to score 94 goals in 101 appearances.
Despite only having 22 touches of the ball in 89 minutes against the Tractors, the Norwegian registered seven shots at goal in total, four of which were on target.
This highlights how deadly he can be in front of goal despite not being particularly prominent in possession.
Haaland’s latest performance earned him an overall match rating of 9.2/10 from SofaScore, making him the second-highest-rated City player on the day behind Kevin De Bruyne (9.6/10).
Taking all of that on board, it’s not hard to see why Merson has been so impressed by what he saw from the City striker against Ipswich.
