‘Love Pep’s humour!’, ‘so funny’ – Man City fans react as Guardiola cracks Haaland joke after record-breaking performance

Pep Guardiola joked that he was unhappy with Erling Haaland because he didn’t score a hat-trick in Manchester City’s 4-0 win over Southampton on Saturday.

Haaland scored City’s fourth after missing a few big chances – including one where he was one-on-one with Southampton goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu but fired against the post.

Ahead of Saturday, Haaland had netted a hat-trick in his previous three Premier League home games – but he only notched once against the Saints.

And Guardiola joked: “I’m so upset with him, he didn’t score three goals,”

“That’s why there’s a petition to sack him from the Premier League, but that is not going to happen, so that’s nice.”

These Guardiola’s comments were shared on Twitter by City Xtra and it attracted plenty of attention from the club’s supporters.

“Pep just gave the media a huge middle finger. Genius. Absolute genius.”
Credit: @thebigbrodas

“No way he said that.”
Credit: @MCFC__BH

“He is trolling the whole league now 😂😂”
Credit: @NjotuPower

“My manager taking the piss and this is what we love to see 🤣.”
Credit: @Cityzen932

“Ha ha!! Love Pep’s humour!”
Credit: @joshandyvonne

“Pep is so funny”
Credit: @CraigTyrer

“Pep’s has been cracking jokes lately.”
Credit: @zaharadeentweet

Guardiola also suggested that the expectation on Haaland is so high now that people expect him to score three or four goals a game.

“Expectations of him are so high that people expect he is going to score three or four goals every game, but in the end, he was there and scored. He has done it and helped us again. He played really good!”

Haaland spotted the quotes on Twitter, and he responded to the quote with a gif of Star Wars’ robot C3PO. It was a little nod to team-mate Aymeric Laporte who had called Haaland a robot after spotting the petitions online.