Haaland excels with four goals and gives City victory, the title race with Arsenal remains exciting

NOS Football•today, 3:37 PM

Manchester City recorded a 5-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday evening. Striker Erling Haaland played a leading role and scored the first four goals for the ‘Citizens’.

City’s victory means the title race with Arsenal, which already won earlier in the day, remains extremely exciting. The club from Manchester now has one point less than the Londoners, but still has a match in hand.

Norwegian super striker Erling Haaland made his mark once again. Before halftime he was already good for a hat trick with two accurate penalties and a nice header. It was the second time he had achieved this before half-time in a Premier League match, putting him in an illustrious list: only Andrew Cole and Michael Owen had also achieved this twice in the history of the Premier League.

Haaland saved his best goal until after halftime. In the 53rd minute he received a deep pass from Phil Foden, cut out his man and fired an unstoppable shot into the far corner. Thanks to the quartet of goals, Haaland now has 25 goals in the Premier League this season, more than any other player.

Chelsea youngster Cole Palmer and Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak follow on the top scorers list with twenty goals.

The crowd at the Etihad Stadium seemed to be satisfied with the 4-1 final score, but was allowed to cheer one more time. Julian Álvarez scored just before the end on a pass from Rodri, making the final score 5-1.

Arsenal did good business in the English Premier League earlier on Saturday by beating Bournemouth 3-0. The score was still low: they could have been 4-0 ahead in the first half after a real rain of chances. ‘The Gunners’ fired no fewer than 16 shots on target, compared to one from Bournemouth.

It was thanks to the excellent goalkeeper Mark Travers that the score remained 0-0 for a long time. But the same Travers caused a penalty just before half time.

There was discussion about this, because Arsenal player Kai Havertz got caught on Travers’ outstretched leg. After seeing the VAR images, the referee ruled that it was a penalty, which Bukayo Saka took: 1-0.

Arsenal, where Jurriën Timber, who had recovered from a cruciate ligament injury, was not yet in the selection, also started attacking after the break. But Bournemouth didn’t give up. The most dangerous shot came from Justin Kluivert, which went just wide after fifteen minutes.

A little later he tried again from the direct free kick, but this attempt also missed the mark. Attempt three also failed, after a long sprint and a blocked shot.

Lucas Trossard made it 2-0 in the 70th minute. Shortly afterwards, Bournemouth seemed to score the tying goal, but the VAR had spotted a minor foul. Deep into injury time, Declan Rice made it 3-0.