PL: Haaland hits treble as Man City thrash Fulham

Erling Haaland “was born to score goals” and capped a golden week by completing a second-half hat-trick as Manchester City extended their 100% start to the Premier League season with a win over Fulham.

On Tuesday, Haaland was named PFA Player of the Year. On Thursday, he got a similar award from Uefa.

Man City’s assistant manager Juanma Lillo was effusive in his praise of the striker saying it is “no surprise” that he reaches high goal-scoring figures.

“He’s great at providing for other players, he gave one assist today, he has this importance to other players, it’s not just about scoring goals,” said Lillo.

“I’m more impressed by other figures as well, not just if he ends up scoring. I always looked at his intelligence as well as his goal-scoring.”

Here, he was back doing what he does best – putting the ball into the net, as he took his tally to six for the campaign.

Haaland had set up the opener for Julian Alvarez – and with the score at 2-1 going into the second half, the favour was returned, as the Argentine sent him charging into the box with a fine first-time pass for City’s third.

The Norwegian then kept his nerve to score City’s fourth from the penalty spot after Issa Diop had fouled Alvarez.

Haaland had already been named man of the match when he applied the superb first-time finish to Sergio Gomez’s cut-back to claim yet another match ball.

Fulham would argue the pivotal moment in the game came just before the break, after Tim Ream had equalised within a minute of Alvarez’s opener on the half hour.

Video assistant referee Tony Harrington ruled an offside Manuel Akanji was not interfering with play as Nathan Ake’s 10-yard header bounced past him, even though the Swiss made a play for the ball.

Fulham boss Marco Silva evidently thought otherwise and was booked as he led the protests.