Pep Guardiola said Erling Haaland’s hat-trick was “nothing special” as Manchester City fought back to beat Crystal Palace 4-2.
Manchester City found themselves two down at half-time, but a wonderful solo goal from Bernardo Silva kickstarted a comeback before Haaland hammered in a hat-trick to finish the job.
And while Guardiola called on his side to conceded fewer goals after going two behind for the second game running, he was full of praise for summer signing Haaland and his goalscoring career that makes hat-tricks appear ordinary.
“We have the ability to score goals but lately we are conceding a lot,” he said.
“It’s nice leaving in this situation and to have a comeback. You are in the margin when this happens sometimes.
“The last two games have had a lot of goals and a lot of goals conceded. It was a good game. We have always struggled against them but we came back. In the previous seasons we didn’t have it but now we are starting to do it. It is a good lesson for us what happened in the first half but now it is a good game.
“They were well organised and we didn’t do what we need to do in these types of games. What [Erling Haaland] has done today he has done all his career. It is nothing special.
“We have not done anything special for him that he didn’t do before. It is important for him to get goals. He has the sense to score goals.”
Guardiola confirmed this week that midfielder Bernardo Silva would stay with the club, and was full of praise for the Portuguese’s performance against Palace.
“Bernardo Silva is the type of player that when things go bad he can step forward,” added Guardiola.
“He is maybe the best that we have when things go wrong.
“We dropped two points against Newcastle but we could have won with the chances we had and we learn that process. Today it was good.”
Haaland has scored five goals in his first four Premier League appearances for Manchester City, a record bettered only by his predecessor Sergio Aguero.
He only has 12 more goals to go before he matches his father’s goalscoring record for the club. The Norwegian was delighted with both the win and scoring a treble.
“It was a proud moment for me and my family and yes I’m happy. Amazing feeling to score a hat-trick,” he told the BBC.
“It’s about trying to continue what we are doing. It was about small adjustments and we did that and got results. We had to listen to the manager.
“It’s a mentality that we trust each other and we know the chances will come. It’s about keeping going. In the end we scored four goals and that’s a really good thing.
“It’s a warning that we have to become better, training hard and develop. When we play at home we shouldn’t concede early goals. It’s about working harder.”
