Craig Burley has backed Manchester City as the favourites for the Premier League title due to the presence of Erling Haaland.
As Gary Lineker claimed, teams across the country will be terrified after witnessing the Norwegian international pick Everton apart singlehandedly with his tremendous brace.
Ahead of Manchester City’s 2-0 win against Everton, Glenn Murray claimed that the title race could be over and done with once Erling Haaland starts putting the ball in the back of the net once again.
On Saturday, Haaland was back amongst the goals for the champions of England and in style.
Craig Burley says Erling Haaland factor could decide title race in favour of Manchester City
Last season as well, despite City’s struggles, the £375,000-a-week (Sport Rac) man continued to deliver in front of goal, which perhaps put the pressure on Arsenal during crunch time.
Once again this campaign, the 23-year-old’s consistency could have a similar impact on not just the Gunners but Liverpool as well.
Craig Burley believes Manchester City are the firm favourites to win four Premier League titles in a row and the primary reason behind that is Erling Haaland.
“City are still the team to beat”, he said on ESPN UK’s YouTube channel.
“We’ll leave the facts on the table. There’s three teams going for the title at the moment and only one of them have a recognised, world-class striker and that’s not Arsenal and Liverpool. So, those two are going to have to figure out a different way to do it.”
Craig Burley added that before signing Erling Haaland, Manchester City had figured out a way of scoring goals, despite failing to replace Sergio Aguero in the 2021/2022 season.
“The same thing that City had to do before they had [Erling] Haaland and Sergio Aguero had sort of left and they did figure it out. And yet, both of these sides have got front players that are very attacking and yeah, maybe Liverpool will hang their hat on possibly Mo Salah when he’s fit again, who more than gets his fair quota of goals.”
“You wouldn’t call him an out-and-out number nine but he gets his fair quota of goals. What we do know is City have this big, Norwegian up front that’s a goal machine.
“I might be wrong, maybe it is Liverpool that comes [second], I hope they’re all in there but I think what we all do know is City are the team to beat.”
Erling Haaland is simply a better goalscorer than any player in England
Some may argue with Craig Burley and state that while Manchester City have Erling Haaland at their disposal, Liverpool and Arsenal have prolific wide forwards in their ranks such as Mohamed Salah and Bukayo Saka respectively.
But a counter-argument to such a point would be that Haaland is a superior goalscorer to every player in the league, including the aforementioned pair, which gives City the edge in the title race.
After all, Haaland (36 goals) broke Salah’s (32 goals) all-time goal record in a single season during his debut campaign in England while Saka is yet to even reach 20 goals in a league season yet.
