Maybe Erling Haaland’s father needs to change his lasagna recipe.
When the burly Norwegian made his way through the English Premier League right from the brace on his Premier League Debi, he put his fertile form down to the pasta his dad cooked before every game. After a run of three hat-tricks in as many consecutive Premier League appearances at the Etihad Stadium, Haaland he joked, “It turns out pretty well every game.”
The days of those inexorable triple sounds seem to belong to the past. Haaland failed to score in his fourth successive strike, seeing a tame penalty saved as City limped along 1-1 draw against Everton in the first game on Boxing Day.
Haaland’s wayward spot-kick was the 11th ‘big chance’ he failed to convert in the previous three months – more than any other Premier League player in the same period, per WhoScored.
Since Manchester City’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal, Erling Haaland has missed more clear-cut chances to score (11) than any other Premier League player. 🫠
Stay humble, huh? pic.twitter.com/oWmpeBNN9Z
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) December 26, 2024
Haaland is no stranger to missed opportunities. City‘s number nine topped the ‘big misses’ charts in each of the previous two seasons. After opening the first Manchester derby in 2024 particularly brilliantly, Haaland said: “People say I’m good at scoring goals, but I missed the biggest chance in the world.”
However, for every setback came a series of successful strikes. There hasn’t been that lately.
During this particularly wasteful run of form – which has seen City win just four of their last 13 Premier League games – Haaland has scored a paltry three goals. 27 different players have surpassed it the world’s most feared strikeramong them is Manchester City’s left back Josko Guardiol. Even the exiled Marcus Rashford can match Haaland’s tally of three league goals in the last three months.
Haaland blamed himself after losing to Aston Villa last weekend. Pep Guardiola defended his misfiring forward but once again highlighted his side’s lack of clinical sharpness on Thursday afternoon. “The performance against that team was really good in attack and defence,” said City’s increasingly overburdened boss. We shot a lot inside the penalty area, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the result we wanted.
Manuel Akanji was not so optimistic and almost knocked City out of the title race. “The season is not over, but that is not our goal at the moment,” sighed the Swiss central defender. For Haaland, the goal is simply to return to the scorers.
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