Although already kicking butt seriously, and most impressively, at his tender age, it is obvious Norwegian dynamo Erling Braut Haaland still has a long way to go at Manchester City to catch up with Sergio Aguero, City’s record scorer.<\/p>\n
Be that as it may, coach extraordinaire Pep Guardiola is more than confident his close-season signing will in due time write himself illustriously into the club’s folklore and cement his place as one of the Etihad\u2019s enduring legends.<\/p>\n
Guardiola has issued a challenge to his new charge Haaland to become a Manchester City legend in the aftermath of the Norway striker\u2019s second successive hat-trick brilliantly inspired a 6-0 rout of Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Haaland\u2019s blistering 26-minute treble was the coup de grace<\/em> in the first half that was catalytic to the demolition of their newly-promoted rivals at the Etihad Stadium, just four days after he had notched his first hat-trick against Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n Even at this early juncture, the 22-year-old has already earned the distinction of being the first player in the Premier League era to net nine times in his first five appearances in the competition, breaking a record shared by former City icon Sergio Aguero and Micky Quinn.<\/p>\n No doubt the towering, statuesque lad still has some ways to go to catch up with Aguero, City\u2019s record scorer, but Guardiola is confident his clatest proteg\u00e9 from Borussia Dortmund will vindicate himself with unequalled distinction.<\/p>\n \u201cSergio is the legend. Nobody can break the position in the hearts of City fans, scoring the most important goal in the modern history,\u201d Guardiola said.<\/p>\n \u201cErling has the quality to be there. It\u2019s not about him or Sergio. What Sergio has done is amazing. But Erling has this talent.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat he has done in Norway, Austria and Germany he tries to do here. He\u2019s talented, we knew it.\u201d<\/p>\n Already being forecasted to be the firm favorite to finish as this season\u2019s Premier League top scorer, Guardiola insists helping champions City retain the title would mean more to his striker than garnering personal accolades.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what we want is win the titles. If the record and the goals help to win it will be perfect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cKnowing him a little bit, I don\u2019t know if he\u2019d be happy breaking records if we didn\u2019t win titles.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he wants to be part of that. The better we play, he\u2019ll have more chances to score goals.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"