Pep Guardiola makes bold Erling Haaland claim in ominous warning to Man City rivals after latest hat-trick

Pep Guardiola insists Erling Haaland is already playing “much better” than last season.

Haaland scored a hat-trick on Saturday as Manchester City won 3-1 at West Ham, taking the Norwegian’s tally to seven league goals for the season in just three games, and 71 in 69 league games in a City shirt.

The Norway striker broke the 38-game Premier League season scoring record in his first season at City when, in 2022/23, he netted 36 goals in 35 league outings. Last season, he added a further 27 in 31 Premier League matches.

Guardiola was beaming in his appraisal of the 24-year-old when he spoke after Saturday’s victory at the London Stadium.

“Of course, he wants to score goals and it’s what he has to do,” the City boss said. “But he was involved with the game today.

“He played an unbelievable game, not just with the goals but offensively, defensively. I’m really pleased with him but now, officially, pre-season is over. The international break is starting. Then [we play] every three days, three days. Very happy to have one title already [the Community Shield] and nine points.”

Guardiola was quizzed on Haaland’s sharpness and said, comparing him to last season: “He’s better. He’s playing much better. The first goal, it’s unstoppable. It’s so powerful.”

The City head coach was also pleased with the performance of Jack Grealish, who earned his first start of the season just two days after being selected in Lee Carsley’s first squad since becoming interim manager of England.

Grealish was used sparingly last season, despite costing City all of £100million when they signed him from Aston Villa in August 2021.

“Really good,” Guardiola said of Grealish’s display against West Ham. “He was aggressive without the ball, [and] especially with the ball. Hopefully, he can come back fit and better than he finished the game today.

“I would like all my English players to go to national team when they are fit. And other nationalities the same. I just don’t like it when they are not fit and go to the national teams. But the power of the national team, we don’t have anything [we can] say.”