Erling Haaland breaks Premier League goalscoring record in 6-0 City thrashing with a second hat-trick in a week

 

Famed for being a tough league to adapt to, Erling Haaland is taking to the Premier League like a duck to water.

After scoring his first hat-trick for Manchester City at the weekend -- in its 4-2 win over Crystal Palace -- having joined from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, Haaland repeated the feat on Wednesday night.

It took the Norwegian striker just 26 minutes between his first and third goal in the first half to complete the feat, as City romped to a 6-0 win over newly-promoted Nottingham Forest at the Etihad Stadium.

It means that Haaland has now scored a remarkable nine goals in his first five Premier League appearances, breaking the previous record of eight set by Mick Quinn and City's all-time top goalscorer, Sergio Agüero.

Afterward, Haaland hailed his teammates and the impact they've had on his game, calling the team's performance "amazing."

"It was about to keep doing what we did in the second half against Crystal Palace," he said.

"Play, play, play and we knew we'd get the chances and we did that. It was nice. It's been good so far, I'm not complaining!

"I try to listen as much as I can to Pep [Guardiola] and the boys. They're amazing footballers, without them, I can't score goals. It's about finding the chemistry and listening to Guardiola.

"It's fantastic. That's why I came here. We play so good, we find each other, it's going to be nice."

After the game, manager Pep Guardiola was asked if Haaland could break Agüero's club record of 260 goals.

"Sergio is the legend. Nobody can break the position in the hearts of City fans, scoring the most important goal in the modern history of the club," Guardiola said.

"Erling has the quality to be there. What Sergio has done is amazing. But Erling has this talent. Hopefully, he can enjoy and score more goals. Knowing him a little bit, I don't know if he'd be happy breaking records if we didn't win titles."