Erling Haaland is taking English soccer by storm.
Back-to-back hat tricks. Nine goals in five games. No player has ever made as good a start to the Premier League as the towering Norway striker.
Haaland’s latest three-goal haul came in the first half of City’s 6-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, three days after achieving the same feat in the second half against Crystal Palace.
City was banking on Haaland being the heir to long-time striker Sergio Aguero and it’s already looking as if that is the case.
Aguero previously held the record for most goals in a player’s first five Premier League appearances, with eight along with former Coventry striker Mick Quinn (from the early 1990s). Haaland has bettered that, and surely more scoring records will fall if he continues like this.
For example, can he become the first player to score 40 goals in a single top-flight campaign in England since Tottenham’s Jimmy Greaves in 1960-61?
City is the red-hot favourite to win the Premier League again with Haaland leading the line and is unbeaten with four wins in five games. Still, the champions aren’t top.
That honour remains with Arsenal, which secured its fifth straight win to open the season by beating Aston Villa 2-1 despite conceding a goal straight from a corner.
Gabriel Martinelli’s 77th-minute goal clinched victory at Emirates Stadium for Arsenal, which has matched its best ever start to a Premier League season.
Liverpool is battling hard to keep up with the fierce pace set by Arsenal and City.
A goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time by Fábio Carvalho earned Jurgen Klopp’s team a 2-1 win over Newcastle and now has back-to-back wins after a winless opening three games.
Liverpool needed a second-half comeback after Alexander Isak gave Newcastle the lead on his debut following a move from Real Sociedad on Friday for a club-record fee.
In other games, West Ham recovered from conceding an own-goal to draw 1-1 at home to Tottenham and Bournemouth drew 0-0 at home to Wolverhampton, two days after firing manager Scott Parker.