Erling Haaland has now proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he will be able to withstand the test of Premier League football. Some questioned whether his Bundesliga brilliance would translate to the toughest league in the world, but now they are debating not whether he will hit 30 goals this season, but whether he can become the first to score 40.
This evening he scored his second hat-trick in consecutive matches, during Man City's 6-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest, and brought his tally for the season to nine goals after just five games. All three finishes were, admittedly, poachers goals, but his supreme awareness, positioning, and strength were all on display.
Twitter was lit up with incredulous praise for Haaland, as words like 'cheat code' and 'machine' were bandied about. Many users were also posting the jaw-dropping stats and records his first half hat-trick has brought him.
Twitter Reaction To Erling Haaland Performance
🎯Fewest games to score 2 Premier League hat-tricks
5⃣ ERLING HAALAND
.............................
2⃣1⃣ Demba Ba
2⃣5⃣ Tony Yeboah
2⃣5⃣ Fernando Torres
2⃣6⃣ Fabrizio Ravanelli pic.twitter.com/BQPpdsqZcK— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) August 31, 2022
*Haaland shoots*
Ball: pic.twitter.com/HlY2dMyOQf— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) August 31, 2022
How Haaland sees the Premier League pic.twitter.com/nROcGDfqpN
— Troll Football (@TrollFootball) August 31, 2022
Erling Haaland has more goals than 𝟏𝟓 Premier League teams 🤫 pic.twitter.com/hw2kTDupjs
— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 31, 2022
READ HERE: Watch: Erling Haaland Warned To Clean Up His Language In Post-Match Interview
READ HERE: Jamie Carragher Unsure How Well Erling Haaland Will Fit At Man City
🎯Fewest games to score 2 Premier League hat-tricks
5⃣ ERLING HAALAND
.............................
2⃣1⃣ Demba Ba
2⃣5⃣ Tony Yeboah
2⃣5⃣ Fernando Torres
2⃣6⃣ Fabrizio Ravanelli pic.twitter.com/BQPpdsqZcK— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) August 31, 2022
The way he’s going @ErlingHaaland will beat @alanshearer’s record before @HKane.
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) August 31, 2022
Haaland the first Premier League player to score nine goals in his first five games.
Surely set to be the first to hit 40 in a season.— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) August 31, 2022
Erling Haaland has now scored as many PL goals as Andriy Shevchenko
— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) August 31, 2022
Erling Haaland spoke to BT Sport after the match, where he spoke of his enjoyment at playing football with his new club.
"Amazing, nothing more to say. It was about keeping doing what we did in second half against Palace, play, play, play - it was nice.
"It's been good so far, I'm not complaining. There's going to be a lot of games, so it's important to keep going and enjoy as much as we can."
Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper also gave his views on the game: "I have to say, first and foremost, Man City are an incredible team. You have to be more than perfect to succeed against them.
"We were naive with the goals in the first half, which made it even tougher. The first and third were from set-pieces, the second we let them into our box too easy.
"At half-time I just asked the boys not to give up, and we didn't. But again, there were goals in the second half we could do much better with.
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