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Haaland hits four as Man City close gap in title race

Erling Haaland converts from the spot © Premier League

By Rama Mohammed | 04 May 2024

The reigning champions ease past Wolves 5-1 to go one point behind Arsenal thanks to Haaland's awesome display

Erling Haaland's four-goal haul ensured Manchester City continued their Premier League title charge with a 5-1 triumph over Wolverhampton Wanderers, as Pep Guardiola's team responded to Arsenal's victory earlier on Saturday in style.

Arsenal moved four points clear at the top with their 3-0 win over AFC Bournemouth but Haaland eased any City nerves with his dominant first-half hat-trick at Etihad Stadium.

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That quickfire treble included two penalties before Haaland added to his tally after the interval – following Hwang Hee-chan's consolation goal – to move to a competition-leading 25 goals this season.

Haaland’s replacement Julian Alvarez added further gloss late on as City, who have a match in hand on Arsenal, cut the gap to the Gunners to only one point. Wolves remain 11th after a run of only one win in their past eight league games.

How the match unfolded
City needed only 12 minutes to take the lead. Rayan Ait-Nouri conceded a penalty for an inadvertent collision with Josko Gvardiol, and Haaland made no mistake from the spot, sending Jose Sa the wrong way.

Haaland goal
Sa was equal to Haaland shortly after, though, tipping away the striker's header following Bernardo Silva's right-wing centre. But the Wolves goalkeeper was powerless to prevent the Norwegian doubling his tally after 35 minutes, as Haaland climbed high to redirect Rodri’s back-post centre into the bottom-far corner.

Haaland header, Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers
And Haaland had his hat-trick when, on the stroke of half-time, he repeated the trick from 12 yards after he had drawn a clumsy challenge from Nelson Semedo, after the VAR had recommended an on-field review of the incident.

Haaland penalty VAR
Wolves reduced the deficit eight minutes into the second half as Hwang fired into an empty net from Ederson's unconvincing punch. But City restored their three-goal advantage just a minute later.

Haaland latched on to Phil Foden's over-the-top pass before cutting inside and blasting a left-footed strike into the top-left corner for the finest of his four goals.There was time for City to increase their goal difference, too, as substitute Alvarez wrapped up the scoring after Rodri had regained possession high before finding the Argentinian, who angled a low effort across Sa.

Alvarez goal
Golden Boot within Haaland’s grasp
For every Arsenal victory, Guardiola's side continue to respond with three points of their own and still boast a game in hand away against Tottenham Hotspur to overtake the Gunners.

City are now unbeaten in their last 20 Premier League games, becoming the second side to manage a streak of 20+ undefeated league matches on five separate occasions, after Manchester United, who did it seven times.

That is in large part thanks to Haaland, whose four goals came in only 54 minutes here. Only Gabriel Jesus has scored as many times earlier in a Premier League game, finding the net four times in 53 minutes against Watford in April 2022.

He is now five clear of his rivals in the hunt for the Premier League Golden Boot.

Frustration grows at Wolves
Gary O'Neil has regularly voiced his concerns over the depth of Wolves' squad, with his side suffering from numerous injury issues across a troubled season.

Matheus Cunha and Ait-Nouri – the latter who conceded the first penalty for an accidental collision with Gvardiol – returned to the starting XI from injury, but that did little to mask Wolves' problems.

Injuries have played their part in hampering O'Neil's tenure, though this clash was a stark reminder of their shortcomings – Wolves have now lost eight of their last nine Premier League visits to Man City.