Erling Haaland set another record Sunday as the Norwegian international became the first player to score a hat-trick in three consecutive Premier League home fixtures as City cruised to an easy 6-3 win over United. Phil Foden completed his own hat-trick for City with his third goal in the 72nd minute.
“To win at home, score six goals, it’s nice,” Haaland said. “You can feel it all the time. You can see the passes we give each other. We always want to go forward and to attack. It’s what I love about the team. In the end, it’s amazing. There is nothing more to say.”
Haaland, who joined City from Borussia Dortmund this past summer, has 17 goals in 10 games overall. He not only netted the hat-trick, but also helped create two other goals.
“In the last minutes, we were flat,” City manager Pep Guardiola said after the match. “But you know, good victory, good win. Good afternoon for us. In general, it was really good how aggressive we were without the ball.”
Anthony and Anthony Martial scored for United, their respective goals making the scoreline 4-1, then 6-2 and 6-3.
“There are many things we can do better,” Guardiola added. “Some players […] were not good today. Perfect does not exist, but we have to try to. We have to be more consistent.”
City are still a point behind Arsenal on the Premier League table.
In Haaland and Foden, Manchester City are the third side to have two hat-trick scorers in a single Premier League match after Arsenal v Southampton in May 2003 (Jermaine Pennant, Robert Pires), and Leicester v Southampton in October 2019 (Ayoze Pérez, Jamie Vardy).
Foden scored his 50th goal for Manchester City in all competitions. At just 22 years and 127 days, he is now the youngest player to reach 50 goals under Pep Guardiola, beating Lionel Messi by just about a month (22y 164d).
United’s Cristiano Ronald remained on the bench during the 90 minute-fixture.
“I wouldn’t bring him in out of respect for Cristiano, for his big career,” United manager Erik ten Hag said on his star being an unused substitute.
Since the start of 2020-21, Manchester United have now conceded four or more first-half goals in four Premier League games.
“It’s quite simple, it’s a lack of belief,” United manager Erik Ten Hag said after the match. “When you don’t believe on the pitch then you can’t win games, that is unacceptable. We get undisciplined at following rules and you get hammered, that’s happened today.”
The nine combined goals on Sunday made this October 2 fixture the highest-scoring Manchester derby in history.
United are back in action mid-week against Omonia in Europa League action before next weekend’s league match against Everton.
City will face Copenhagen midweek for Champions League action before next weekend’s league match against Southampton.
