By Sulaimon Jamiu
Manchester City superstar, Erling Haaland scored his second successive Premier League hat-trick as goal-hungry City thrashed Nottingham Forest 6-0 on Wednesday evening.
The Norwegian striker completed his treble in the space of just 26 minutes, with Joao Cancelo and Julian Alvarez on target after the break.
The arrival of Haaland has changed how City attack and, just five games in, it seems the who team are looking to find him whenever the goal is in sight.
It is a new and devastating dimension to the team’s play, and it is threatening to wreak havoc to opposition defences up and down the land.
The first came at the 12th minute, after a Phil Foden cross floated towards the near post was poached by Haaland, who got there a millisecond before the defender’s attempted clearance.
The second, 11 minutes later, was again created by Foden who burst into the box before squaring for Haaland to tap home, while the third was a close range header after John Stones had strained his neck muscles to nod the ball back across the box.
The second-half saw City continue the rout just five minutes after the restart, as Joao Cancelo joined the party, collecting Bernardo’s clever pass to whip home a sumptuous 20-yard shot into the top left corner.
Number five of the evening came on 65 minutes, with sub Riyad Mahrez’s clever flick sending Alvarez clear in the box and the Argentine’s low shot beat Dean Henderson to cap an impressive full Premier League debut with his first goal.
And it got better for Alvarez as he finished emphatically from 10-yards after collecting Mahrez’s deflected shot and firing into the top left corner three minutes from time.
The visitors were left with no significant performance, at the Etihad Stadium, as they were able to register just one shot on goal.
