Erling Haaland’s heroics takes Man City boss Guardiola by surprise

Erling Haaland

Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland's astonishing scoring feats for Manchester City have been a "surprise", with the Norwegian on the cusp of breaking the Premier League's single-season goal record.

The 22-year-old netted his 34th goal of the league campaign in Sunday's 2-1 win at Fulham, drawing him level with joint Premier League single-season record holders Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.

Haaland's strike at Craven Cottage was his 50th goal of the season - he holds the all-competitions record by a Premier League player since the top flight was rebranded in 1992.

Pep Guardiola

With a potential 10 games remaining for treble-chasing City this term, Haaland could even pass Dixie Dean's all-time English record of 63 goals set in the 1927-28 season.

Also Read: Man City go atop EPL as Erling Haaland breaks 92-year-old landmark

The Everton player's mark of 60 top-flight strikes during that campaign will surely remain intact. It has been an breath-taking first year in English football for Haaland, but Guardiola is confident there is even more come from the former Borussia Dortmund star. "It is a surprise for all of us - maybe not for him - to do what he's doing in this difficult league, but the way he behaves and has done it is for the success of the team, I'm pretty sure he is going to score more goals in the Premier League until the end of the season."

In-form City put themselves firmly in control of the title race with their 4-1 rout of Arsenal last week.

But, after being pushed hard by Fulham, Guardiola is not taking anything for granted ahead of City's home game against West Ham on Wednesday. "West Ham maybe didn't do the season they expected but that doesn't mean the quality is not there," he said.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever