By Steve Douglas
Erling Haaland is taking English football by storm.
Back-to-back hat tricks. Nine goals in five games. No player has ever made as strong a start to the Premier League as the towering Norway striker.
Erling Haaland is already looking like a City legend in the making.Credit:AP
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.
“Amazing, nothing more to say,” said the Norwegian.
“It was about keeping doing what we did in the second half against Palace, play, play, play – it was nice. It’s been good so far, I’m not complaining.”
City were banking on Haaland being the heir to long-time striker Sergio Aguero, and it is already looking as if that is the case.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta celebrates with his players after the Gunners maintained their perfect start to the season.Credit:Getty
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 in 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 are the red-hot favourite to win the Premier League again with Haaland leading the line and are unbeaten with four wins from five games. Still, the champions aren’t top.
That honour remains with Arsenal, who secured their 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, who have matched their best-ever start to a Premier League season.
Arsenal take their unbeaten record to Old Trafford to meet Manchester United on Sunday while there is little breathing room for Gerrard and his beleaguered side who host City.
Gerrard’s former side Liverpool are battling hard to keep up with the fierce pace set by Arsenal and City.
A goal in the eighth minute of stoppage time by Fabio Carvalho earned Juergen Klopp’s team a 2-1 win over Newcastle and now have 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.
“We’ve shown up today for the fans, they’ve helped us so much, I want to say a big thank-you to them because without them this wouldn’t be possible,” an elated Carvalho told BT Sport.
After seeing his side concede one of the latest winners in Premier League history, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe described the result as “painful”.
“I don’t really remember them having too many clear-cut chances. Yes, they had pressure, they’re long shots, but I thought we defended really well. The last goal is really a heartbreaker for us,” he said.
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.
Meanwhile, Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic continued their red-hot run of form with a 4-1 win over Ross County in the Scottish League Cup.
AP, Reuters
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