Guardiola: I’m so upset with Haaland because he didn’t score three goals!

EPL

WHAT HAPPENED? The Manchester City striker has scored in each of his last 10 appearances for the club including his last seven in the Premier League. Haaland had also scored a hat-trick in each of his last three Premier League appearances at the Etihad Stadium and could have add another, firing one shot onto the inside of the post and failing to make contact with a Kevin De Bruyne cross from close range.

 

WHAT THEY SAID: “I’m so upset with him – he didn’t score three goals. That’s why there’s a petition to sack him from the Premier League!” Guardiola joked in his post-match news conference. “Expectations here are so high that people expect he’s going to score every game three or four goals. But at the end he was there to score it. He helped us again, keeping the ball and fighting and I think Erling played really well today.”

 

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Southampton boss Ralph Hassenhuttl admitted that the presence of Haaland affected the way he set up his side defensively with two centre-backs instructed to stop him, yet the Norwegian still managed to find space and his 65th minute strike was typically unstoppable.

WHAT NEXT FOR GUARDIOLA? City head to Copenhagen in the Champions League where a victory would guarantee qualification for the last 16, before a crucial trip to face Liverpool next Sunday. — Goal