Man City’s Haaland causes ‘problem’ with hat-tricks

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said Erling Haaland is creating a “problem” for himself because his form has been so good this season that he is expected to score hat-tricks in every game.

Haaland scored eight goals in five days for Manchester City, three of them in Saturday’s 6-0 win over Burnley in the FA Cup, followed by five goals against RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Tuesday.

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The Norwegian striker has now scored 42 goals this season, including six hat-tricks, and Guardiola says the high standards will inspire even higher expectations.

“This guy is going to have a problem in the future, people expect him to score three or four goals in every game and that’s not going to happen,” said Guardiola. “People have to say a little bit, I know he doesn’t care, he’s so positive about his life, he’s optimistic, he never complains, always looks after himself, no matter how well we play, he’s going to be a to score.

“I don’t know the target figures. We play like this, Erling will score goals.”

City go into the international break, Champions League quarter-finals and FA Cup semi-finals second in the Premier League.

Guardiola’s side are still in with a chance of winning the treble, last achieved by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in 1999, and the City boss admits his players are on form ahead of a crucial phase of the season.

“We’re definitely in a good moment,” said Guardiola. “After Leipzig, Palace we always suffer, we score a lot of goals, we allow few, few chances, we defend well, a threat in set pieces like never before.

“I never felt like we could hit every corner, we have free-kicks. I think Arsenal will lose a few points, we need to win almost every game. It’s an honor to play Bayern again and the semi-finals at Wembley . We live.” in three competitions.

“I felt like the players know we can’t lose or it’s over, that’s our best, that’s the reality.”