Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland will break his own Premier League record after the striker became the outright top scorer in a season on Wednesday.
Haaland scored his 35th goal of his debut campaign with a lovely chipped effort over Lukas Fabianski to put daylight between City and a stubborn West Ham side. The goal ensured there was no way back for West Ham, and City went on to record a 3-0 win and return to the top of the Premier League table by two points.
City players and staff gave Haaland a guard of honour off the pitch at full time, and fans sung his name on a historic night at the Etihad. And Guardiola said the gesture was planned, as he praised the whole team for their input in Haaland’s record and predicted that he is in a better place to score more and more goals next season.
Pep Guardiola said: “All the team deserved it because without the team he couldn’t do it. We are very pleased for him, he is a joy – not just to work with him – everyone is happy to have him with us. Of course this record will be broken sooner or later, maybe by him in the future. He will score a lot of goals. I remember when we lost against Liverpool in the Community Shield [people said] he will not adapt in the Premier League! We don’t know what is going to happen. Today is a good example. The first half he was not much involved, the defensive structure of West Ham was exceptional but he doesn’t become desperate and anxious and nervous. He is calm. We talk all of us at half time to realise this kind of situation so don’t be nervous, don’t be anxious, be patient, don’t make a mistake behind and we were lucky to score early. At the end when you buy a player in Erling we know he scores goals everywhere but at the end you don’t know. You have to work, see the process. He understands what we want to do. The players understand his movement. So a question of time. The impact of how he adjusts to the league was so quick, the first two goals were against West Ham [in the first game of the season] and he breaks the record against West Ham. Immediately we saw he is a guy when you provide him with balls he scores in all situations except free kicks – maybe in the future – but crosses, penalties, combinations, transitions. He is a guy who can do many things as well as score a lot of goals.”
