Haaland scores first-half hat-trick as Man City thrash Nottingham Forest

New Manchester City signing, Erling Haaland made it back-to-back hat-tricks as the Premier League champions defeated Nottingham Forest 6-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening.

The Norwegian took his tally for the Premier League season to nine in just his fifth appearance in the competition with all three of his goals coming in the first half as Nottingham Forest just could not cope with City’s new centre-forward.

A wonderful strike from Joao Cancelo made it four before two goals by the impressive Julian Alvarez on his full Premier League debut capped the night for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Erling Haaland has now scored nine goals after five Premier League appearances, a new competition record, surpassing Mick Quinn and Sergio Aguero (both eight).

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Haaland became only the seventh player to score a hat-trick in back-to-back games in the competition and the first since Harry Kane in December 2017.

Manchester City, however, scored five or more goals in a Premier League game for the 32nd time under Pep Guardiola, which accounts for 14 per cent of their games under the Spaniard in the competition.

It is more than twice as many such games as any other side in this time.

City’s tally of 18 goals after five games is the most in their history at this stage of a league campaign.

The last side to exceed 18 after five games in the Premier League were Manchester United in 2011-12 (21 goals).