Pep Guardiola joked he was ‘upset’ with Erling Haaland for not scoring a hat-trick vs Southampton

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

After watching Erling Haaland score a third hat-trick in as many home Premier League games, all eyes were on Southampton as they looked for a way to deal with the Premier League’s top scorer.

The Manchester City striker went into the weekend with twice as many league goals as any other player, while a midweek double against FC Copenhagen took him up to 20 in 13 games for club and country after drawing a blank in the community shield.

That almost became 21 in 14 inside 15 minutes, with a first-time effort cannoning back off Gavin Bazunu’s post, and he eventually got on the scoresheet in the second half.

Haaland ‘s second-half strike extended his scoring run to seven consecutive Premier League games, something no City player has ever done before.

And Guardiola referred to a petition asking for Haaland to be banned from the Premier League when analysing his performance, and in particular that first-half miss.

“I’m so upset with him he didn’t score three goals, that’s why the petition is to sack him for the Premier League,” he joked.

“It happens [the first-half miss]. The expectation is so high people expect he’ll score three or four goals every game. In the end he was there to score it. He helped to keep the ball, fight. Erling played really good today too.”

Guardiola praised City’s general performance, saying they ‘behaved’ like he knows they can do, although he did point to misses from Haaland and other teammates to improve their taking of chances.

He said: “In general we played good, a team we struggled [against] last season, every time we played them. We changed a bit our setup and build-up. Much better, all the minutes played Bernardo and Rodri second half. We created chances, the people upfront could have been more clinical. It’s fine, after three days a game, the players react and behave again like who they are.”

Meanwhile, Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl also discussed Haaland, saying that City’s wealth of attacking options make defending so difficult even if Haaland was kept quiet for long periods.

He explained: “The problem is that even if he’s not immediately scoring you have to be aware of him much more, the centre-backs are more fixed in the centre, it makes it harder for us in the press. You have to be very brave, we did it two times in the first half and gave them chances.

“It’s better to be early there and go early. We tried it today, it worked quite well but not always. It makes it harder, a fantastic striker and if he doesn’t do it the players around him do.”