Erling Haaland scored his fourth hat-trick of the season as Manchester City thrashed defenseless Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday night.
The Norwegian striker now has 25 goals in 19 Premier League appearances, already surpassing the tally of the top scorer from last season.
dominant performance
Pep Guardiola’s men dominated from start to finish to give themselves three points and close the gap on league leaders Arsenal by just two points before the latter host Manchester United later in the day.
Haaland opened the scoring in the 40th minute with a forceful header from Kevin De Bruyne’s perfect pass from the right flank to open the scoring. Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa had made two good saves earlier to keep the hosts out, but as soon as Haaland scored Wolves looked nervous and barely recovered.
Ruben Neves brought down Ilkay Gundogan 4 minutes after the restart and Haaland stepped up to send Sa down the wrong path to make it 2-0 for City.
Four minutes later, Sa unnecessarily handed the ball straight to Riyad Mahrez, who could have scored it himself, but instead passed it to Haaland and the latter moved into the bottom corner to make the third of the night.
Haaland was substituted on the hour mark for World Cup winner Julián Álvarez, who could have made the scoresheet himself, but was denied a one-on-one by Sa after being fueled by De’s perfect dismissal Bruyne. Gundogan should have made it 4-0 on 80 minutes, but the German midfielder missed a free header at the near post.
City held on to their clean sheet despite late pressure from Wolves, who looked rusty with manager Julen Lopetegui cutting a frustrating figure on the sidelines. The Spanish coach will have a lot of work to do when his team sit in 17th place and flirt with the relegation zone.
For Guardiola, it’s his side’s sixth successive win over Wolves having scored 19 times on that term and the reigning champions travel to Tottenham next weekend as they look for a hat-trick of Premier League victories .
Photo Credit: IMAGO Andrew Yates/Sportimage
