Man City 4-1 Ipswich

MANCHESTER CITY manager Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland is feeling better than ever after the Norwegian’s hat-trick helped his team to a 4-1 against Ipswich Town on Saturday.

“He feels better than previous seasons,” Guardiola said as Haaland reached four goals for the season after just two games.

“He had struggled to handle it with not too many holidays, saying ‘still I’m tired and drained,’ but this season having not played in the Euros he relaxed and arrived really well.

“We talked a bit in the States [in pre-season] that I didn’t like some things, and he changed them.

“Of course, he cannot play all the games until the end of the season but his numbers, scoring goals and goals, are unbelievable.”

Ipswich Town briefly shocked the defending champions, taking the lead through their new signing from Blackburn, Sammie Szmodics.

The visitors’ hope didn’t last long. City responded immediately with three goals in five minutes to quickly put to bed any idea of an upset.

Haaland scored a penalty after Leif Davis was adjudged to have fouled Savinho, Kevin De Bruyne found an open goal after a mistake from Ipswich goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, and Haaland added his second following a brilliant De Bruyne pass.

There wasn’t to be another goal until the 88th minute when Haaland secured his hat-trick.

In between, City could have scored a couple more as both Rico Lewis and De Bruyne hit the bar, while Ipswich should have had a penalty of their own when Davis was fouled by Savinho.

But regardless of any additional isolated incidents, the result of the match was decided after those three goals for Guardiola’s side, and the three points weren’t going to the Town, they were going to the City.

“He did it in Salzburg, he did it in Germany; the numbers are ridiculous,” Guardiola added on Haaland.

“In terms of goals, he can compete with Cristiano [Ronaldo] and [Lionel] Messi.”