Erling Haaland: Man City’s Hat-Trick Phenomenon

Erling Haaland is a hat-trick phenomenon, a goalscoring beast, and already the holder of countless scoring records. In his first season in English football, he broke so many records, netting an incredible 36 goals from just 35 Premier League appearances. In total, he banged in 52 goals for Man City from 53 matches in all competitions.

Those are numbers we have only really seen Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo produce on a regular basis. However, at the tender age of just 24, Haaland already has 252 goals from 302 club matches, plus an additional 31 in 33 games for his nation, Norway. His goals helped City to the Treble in his first season under Pep Guardiola as they landed the league, FA Cup, and Champions League.

By those incredible standards the powerful forward was a little off the pace in his second season with City. Just the 38 goals this time around, from 45 matches, including 27 in the league. That was enough to once again win the Golden Boot but, incredibly, not quite enough to prevent some from criticising him.

If he did have a point to prove – which he definitely didn’t – he has started the 2024/25 campaign perfectly. After just three matches in the EPL he has already bagged an incredible seven goals. Of all the teams in the top flight, only City themselves have scored more than that thus far. What’s more, Haaland has netted two hat-tricks already.

In this article, we will look at the times the sensational striker has bagged three or more goals for City in his short stint at the club. The timing of this article is deliberate, with the international break upon us. That means that the stats will still be accurate for a while at least, with City not set to play again until the 14th of September. The form the Norwegian is in at the moment we can’t rule out him netting yet another treble against Brentford, and so we thought we’d get this feature written whilst he’s away scoring (probably) for his country!

Haaland Man City Hat-Tricks

Haaland, son of former Man City player Alf-Inge Haaland, has notched 11 hat-tricks for the Cityzens. That includes times he has scored four goals (and five!) as well, meaning a very high percentage of his total City goals have come in threes or above. 11 hat-tricks from just 102 appearances is a truly astonishing feat. As we shall see, of those 11, eight have come in the Premier League, from just 69 appearances. To put that into perspective, Lionel Messi has a record 36 La Liga hat-tricks, with Cristiano Ronaldo boasting 34. Those came from 520 and 292 appearances respectively, so Haaland is scoring trebles at a similar rate to Ronaldo, and considerably more frequently than Messi!

Haaland Hits Teams for Five

The muscular forward is yet to record a double-hat-trick for City but he has twice registered five goals in a game. He managed the feat against RB Leipzig in the Champions League and also against Luton in the FA Cup. On the 27th of February, 2024, Haaland bludgeoned five of City’s six goals in a 6-2 win away at the Hatters. Kevin De Bruyne produced four assists in the match but it was Haaland who stole the show, producing his second five-star display for the club.

His feat against Luton meant he became the first City player in history to score at least five goals in a game on more than one occasion. Before moving to City Haaland had hit multiple hat-tricks and had scored four before too, but only under Pep has he managed five in a single fixture.

The first time he put on a five-star showing came in the CL on the 14th of March 2023 in the last 16 against RB Leipzig. Haaland scored the first two and had five inside an hour, City eventually winning 7-0! These strikes meant he became the fastest player to reach 30 UCL goals, and joined Messi and Luiz Adriano as the only players to bag five goals in the competition too.

Just the Four Against Wolves

Haaland loves playing against Wolves and they are, for now at least, the only side he has two trebles against for City. Closing in on their fourth straight title in May 2024, he netted four in a 5-1, with two of those coming from the spot. Coincidentally, back in 2021/22, Kevin De Bruyne also got four against Wolves in a 5-1 win that moved City towards a title success late in the season.

First, Second… and Third

To say Haaland hit the ground running in the PL would be an understatement. During long and illustrious careers, players including Didier Drogba, Romelu Lukaku, Jamie Vardy and Robbie Keane managed three Premier League trebles. Haaland netted his third in his eighth game in the competition!

He scored two on debut, didn’t score in his next match and then got a single goal against Newcastle. Palace were next and Haaland bullied the Eagles, registering his first PL treble in 4-2 win. He made it back-to-back hat-tricks against Forest, his side winning 6-0, before getting perhaps his most cherished hat-trick three games later.

On the 2nd of October, 2022, City pummelled Man United 6-3 in a thrilling game. Haaland got three, as did Phil Foden, with the Norwegian providing his teammate with two assists in a superb display that guaranteed his status as a City legend.

He made it four PL trebles in his debut season when he got all three in a 3-0 win over Wolves, also scoring a hat-trick that term in the FA Cup, against Burnley. With the five against Leipzig as well, it meant six hat-tricks in his first campaign, more than so many top players have achieved in their whole careers.

Haaland Can Easily Top the Trebles League

Haaland also got three against Fulham early in the 2023/24 PL campaign, as well as the aforementioned four versus Wolves later that season, and the five in the FA Cup against Luton. In 2024/25, he has begun with the loudest of bangs, netting two trebles in City’s first three league games. Those came against Ipswich and then West Ham, meaning that Haaland has seven goals from his first three PL games.

In all he now boasts 8 Premier League hat-tricks for City, as well as two in the FA Cup and one in the Champions League. Those 8 league trebles put him level with genuine legends of English football, Thierry Henry, Harry Kane and Michael Owen. He is one ahead of Wayne Rooney, and it is only a matter of time before he matches Robbie Fowler’s 9 hat-tricks. Alan Shearer has 11 with Sergio Aguero having scored a record 12, so Haaland could well move top of the trebles league after just three or four seasons in English football!