Erling Haaland, who placed Manchester City on top of the Premier League on Saturday by scoring a hat-trick against Fulham, expressed his want for more goals and accolades.
In his debut season with the club, the Norwegian’s 52 goals helped City win the FA Cup, Premier League, and Champions League.
Afterwards, City has expanded their trophy collection with the UEFA Super Cup and won all four of their Premier League opening games.
“I’m never satisfied,” Haaland said. “I’m excited for the new season that lies ahead.”
Even with such encouraging outcomes, City hasn’t played at its peak level in the opening month of the new campaign.
This is how this club does it every year. We play till the very end of the season because we are the best team, so we get off to a bit of a late start and may be a little careless at times,” Haaland remarked.
It is what it is. From here, we can only grow better and better.”
In the opening half hour of their match against Fulham, the home team was unable to generate a shot on target due to Pep Guardiola’s absence from the sidelines as he recovers from back surgery in his home Catalonia.
Even after Tim Ream’s corner kick from Haaland gave Fulham the lead, Tim Alvarez’s header gave the home team an almost instantaneous response.
City had to score a contentious second goal to lead at the break.
Nathan Ake headed in Phil Foden’s cross, but Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno was distracted by Manuel Akanji, who was standing offside.
“The second City goal had a significant impact on the game,” Fulham manager Marco Silva said.
“It’s unbelievable that the linesman made a poor decision and that someone in the (VAR) office didn’t stop this goal.”
After that, Haaland stole the show as he scored via a through pass from Phil Foden.
Last Saturday, against Sheffield United, the Norwegian missed a penalty kick, but he made no mistakes when Alvarez was knocked down inside the box.
In stoppage time, Haaland completed his eighth City hat-trick with a crisp finish.
In Guardiola’s absence, assistant manager Juanma Lillo of City said, “This guy was born scoring goals and he will go through his whole life scoring goals.”
While it wouldn’t be shocking if he achieved the same numbers as previous year, it also wouldn’t be significant if he didn’t.
“He’s not just about scoring goals; he’s also about providing for other players. He gave one assist today and demonstrated this importance to other players.”