“That’s a surprise” – Mats Hummels makes cheeky Erling Haaland claim after Manchester City star nets back-to-back Premier League hat-tricks
Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels is clearly not surprised by Erling Haaland's stunning start at Manchester City.
The Norwegian scored his second consecutive hat-trick against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Wednesday night (August 31). The three strikes have taken his tally for the season to nine goals in five league appearances.
Expectations were incredibly high for the Norwegian superstar following his summer move from Dortmund, where he scored 86 goals in 89 appearances. His golden run of form at Manchester City clearly comes as no surprise to his former teammate as Hummels tweeted after the Forest encounter:
Oh @ErlingHaaland keeps scoring. Thats a surprise 👀
Pep Guardiola's side smashed the newly-promoted side 6-0 at the Etihad Stadium, with fellow new signing Julian Alvarez also bagging a brace. Manchester City continued their unbeaten start to the top-flight campaign and sit second in the table behind Arsenal.
Haaland scored his second treble in four days after his stunning hat-trick against Crystal Palace on August 27. The Premier League champions found themselves two goals down to the Eagles before the striker took hold of the game and helped turn things around to secure a 4-2 win.
Erling Haaland already has as many Premier League hat tricks as Sadio Mane, Eden Hazard and Son Heung-min.
He's played five games 🤖 https://t.co/o1Qgz4tdbS
Pep Guardiola backs Erling Haaland to become Manchester City legend
Haaland's start to life in England certainly appears ominous for the rest of the division, as Manchester City chase their fifth league title in six years.
After his latest three-goal haul, Guardiola stated that his new signing had some way to go to catch former forward Sergio Aguero but felt it was achievable. The Spanish boss told reporters (as quoted by The Mail):
"Sergio is the legend. Nobody can break the position in the hearts of City fans, scoring the most important goal in modern history. Erling has the quality to be there. It's not about him or Sergio. What Sergio has done is amazing. But Erling has this talent."
"When City bought Erling, everybody talked about what he has done in the past. What we wanted to do is help him. Hopefully, he can enjoy and score more goals. What he has done in Norway, Austria and Germany he tries to do here. He's talented, we knew it."
Guardiola also claimed that winning trophies means more to Haaland than scoring goals. The manager added:
"I think what we want is to win the titles. If the record and the goals help to win, it will be perfect. Knowing him a little bit, I don't know if he'd be happy breaking records if we didn't win titles."
"I think he wants to be part of that. The better we play, he'll have more chances to score goals."
"Put Erling Haaland in that City team and you’re pretty much guaranteed 40 goals a season."
Earlier this year, @alanshearer predicted if Haaland were to join Man City, he could score 40 goals.
He stood by his statement when the Norwegian then joined #MCFC.
... Could he do it? https://t.co/po09tlQAkt