“It’s good to be back to normal” - Erling Haaland reacts after scoring in Manchester City's 2-0 win against Everton
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland shared his thoughts after his brace helped his side beat Everton in the Premier League on Saturday, February 10.
The Cityzens beat the Toffees 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium in a hard-fought game on Saturday. They found it hard to break Sean Dyche's side for 70 minutes before Haaland broke the deadlock with a fierce strike from inside the box. He then latched on to a pass from Kevin De Bruyne and brushed aside Jarrod Branthwaite to score in the 85th minute.
It was the Norwegian striker's first goal since November, having suffered a foot injury in December. After the game, Haaland shared his delight at being back in action and back among the goals, saying (via Telegraph):
“It’s a fantastic feeling. It’s fantastic to be back and it’s also good to keep on winning. That’s important and we have to keep going.
“We have already been on quite a good run. It is a good thing to start to click now. That’s never bad. It’s in the next few months when you win things, so we keep going.”
Haaland spoke about Manchester City's crucial win against a tough Everton side, saying:
“Back to normal finally. It’s good to be back to normal.
“We knew how the game was going to be and they were going to make it difficult for us. But we knew if we trusted ourselves it was going to be really difficult for [Everton]. That’s what we did and in the end it was fantastic to win.”
Haaland took his tally to 21 goals and six assists in 25 games across competitions for Manchester City this season. He still leads the Premier League goalscoring charts with 16 goals.
Pep Guardiola lauds his substitutes following Manchester City's win over Everton
It was mostly a frustrating 70 minutes for Manchester City as they failed to break Everton down despite multiple attempts. Pep Guardiola then brought on Kevin De Bruyne in the 57th minute before Erling Halaand scored their first goal in the 71st minute.
Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish also came on in the 77th and 87th minute respectively as City scored again and closed out the game.
After the win, Guardiola hailed the impact of the three substitutes, saying (via mancity.com):
"...In the second half we were better. We read better, the space we should attack. Kyle, Kevin, Bernardo, and Jack made an incredible contribution - especially Jack in the last minutes, to keep the ball."
De Bruyne had also been out injured since the start of the season and has only made eight appearances across competitions for Manchester City. He's registered one goal and six assists in that time, including assisting City's second goal against Everton.