Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola echoed a sentiment commonly spouted by Roy Keane when confronted with Erling Haaland’s startling goalscoring statistics. “It’s his job,” he grinned.
The unrelenting finisher scored twice in City’s 5–1 thumping of Burnley on Saturday afternoon, taking his tally for the season with club and country to a sickening 15 in nine appearances.
Haaland now boasts 93 goals in the Premier League (from just 103 appearances) ensuring he surpassed Manchester United icon Ole Gunnar Solskjær as the most prolific Norwegian in the competition’s history. The brace also saw Haaland gatecrash City’s list of 10 all-time top scorers.
Just incredible. pic.twitter.com/SPh7he1aMV
— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 27, 2025
The 25-year-old, who only signed for the Sky Blues three years ago, has already amassed 133 goals across all competitions for City. That is still just over half of Sergio Agüero’s record tally (260) but given the rate at which Haaland is currently plundering Premier League backlines, the gap will surely continue to shrink.
Guardiola dropped his Keane tribute act to hail Haaland as “an incredibly important figure for us.” “He always has the feeling that he can score and I’m really pleased again for the performance for the team,” the Catalan coach gushed as City made up ground on a faltering Liverpool this weekend.
“Since the [Manchester] United game, the team showed another way in their body language when they weren’t playing good against Arsenal in how they defend and helped each other—that is the key for everything,” Guardiola beamed.
Man City’s ‘Unstoppable’ Weapon Against Low Blocks
For all of Haaland’s goal records, it was his teammate Jérémy Doku who left Guardiola openly exclaiming: “Wow!”
The jinking winger tormented former City fullback Kyle Walker, playing a role in two of his side’s first three goals before teeing up Haaland for the fourth. Doku was also in fine form against Manchester United a fortnight ago in what has been a strong start to the season.
“I ask the wingers in the final third to go one vs. one or one vs. two and I have the feeling that Jérémy’s decision-making in the final third improved, like, wow!” Guardiola purred. “Comparing to the past, he made an assist to Erling and sees the channels.”
The City boss highlighted how Doku’s capacity to beat his man, thereby instantly creating a numerical overload in the final third, is crucial when facing opponents who are prepared to huddle into a compact defensive rearguard.
“He’s an incredible threat against teams that are a low block and deep,” Guardiola outlined. “Jérémy is really important. When the team is transitional maybe he can struggle a bit but he had the ball and brought the opponent to the box.
“Now he is reading good. When Jérémy goes there for the second goal, two or three opponents go there. They don't allow him to go one vs. one because he’s unstoppable. There is no winger over 5–10 metres stronger than Jérémy—he can go left or right. Now he is reading when the opponents go two or three who the other man is to be free to create a cross or an extra pass. He improved a lot.”
READ THE LATEST MAN CITY NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS AND MORE
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Pep Guardiola Channels Roy Keane With Erling Haaland Praise, Names Man City ‘Wow’ Factor.
