Erling Haaland’s fourth hat-trick in 19 Premier League appearances hauled
Manchester City to within two points of leaders Arsenal with a 3-0 win over
Wolves on Sunday. Pep Guardiola got the reaction he was hoping for from the
English champions after questioning their hunger to retain the title after
Thursday’s 4-2 win over Tottenham. The hosts had to come from 2-0 down in a
dramatic second half against Spurs, but there was little mystery over the
destination of the three points once Haaland had broken Wolves’ resistance
five minutes before half-time.
Manchester City to within two points of leaders Arsenal with a 3-0 win over
Wolves on Sunday. Pep Guardiola got the reaction he was hoping for from the
English champions after questioning their hunger to retain the title after
Thursday’s 4-2 win over Tottenham. The hosts had to come from 2-0 down in a
dramatic second half against Spurs, but there was little mystery over the
destination of the three points once Haaland had broken Wolves’ resistance
five minutes before half-time.
Haaland’s scoring rate has slowed marginally in recent weeks, but his
header from Kevin De Bruyne’s cross moved him level with the 23 league
goals that saw Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min share the Golden Boot with
last seaso.The 22-year-old took his tally to 30 goals in all competitions
from the penalty spot early in the second half after Ilkay Gundogan had
been upended by Ruben Neves.Wolves then gifted Haaland his hat-trick just
four minutes later as goalkeeper Jose Sa presented the ball to Riyad
Mahrez, who unselfishly squared for his teammate to roll into an unguarded
net.
Guardiola quickly took the chance to give his star striker a rest as
Haaland was replaced on the hour mark by Julian Alvarez to Wolves’ relief.
