City boss Pep Guardiola took a risk on Wednesday night by resting Ilkay Gundogan and Ederson against West Ham, presumably with a daunting run of fixtures in mind. Removing Haaland from the starting XI would be a different ball game, however, and the Norwegian once again proved that he is invaluable to the Sky Blues by finding the net.
His well-taken chip over Lukasz Fabianski made it 35 Premier League goals this season, putting him ahead of Andy Cole and Alan Shearer as the all-time record holder. Phil Foden and Nathan Ake were also amongst the goals in a 3-0 win, and Haaland was given a guard of honour by his team-mates after the final whistle as a mark of respect for his incredible accomplishment.
As if the fact that he is 22 years old and still bedding into English football isn’t scary enough, Neville issued another warning to City’s Premier League rivals by strongly suggesting that there could be more to come.
After Haaland’s goal made it 2-0 on the night, Neville told Sky Sports: “He scores more goals than he has touches. We’ve barely seen him for half an hour, his team-mates ignore most of his runs. If they didn’t do that then he really would be dangerous.”
The striker’s creative partner in crime, Kevin De Bruyne, watched on from the crowd on Wednesday as he continues to recover from a knock. The Belgian should be back in action over the coming days, however, with Leeds United next up on Saturday and a showdown against Real Madrid scheduled for next week.
City will need Haaland at his rampant best if they are to match bitter rivals Manchester United’s famous 1999 treble this season. Guardiola’s side have already made it to the FA Cup final, they are in the Champions League semis and Arsenal’s recent slip-ups mean they are heavy favourites for the league title too.
Speaking after the game, Guardiola was full of praise for the former Borussia Dortmund marksman, who set City back what now seems a measly £51million last summer. “Incredible,” he told BBC Sport. “He’s just 22 – and still has five games left.
“How many games did I take him off after a hat-trick in 60 minutes? Maybe he’d have scored more. But maybe he’d have got injured. He’s special. Congratulations to him.
“We expected him to score goals but to break Cole and Shearer’s records… I’m pretty sure what he wants is to win the Premier League. We have one game in hand but still just one point in front. We have to keep going and recover well.”
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