Man City hat-trick hero Erling Haaland: These games are why I’m here

Erling Haaland warned there is much more to come after his first Premier League hat-trick helped Manchester City come from 2-0 down to beat Crystal Palace 4-2.

City signed Haaland from Borussia Dortmund seeking as close to a guarantee of goals as they could get and when they needed them on Saturday the Norwegian delivered.

He scored three in the space of 20 minutes to turn what could have been another home defeat to Palace into a comfortable win.

Pep Guardiola’s side were second best to a first-half Palace display Patrick Vieira described as “perfect”, leading through a John Stones own goal and a Joachim Andersen header, but after Bernardo Silva pulled one back in the 53rd minute, Haaland took over with his first home goals for City.

“These games are why I’m here – to turn things around when there are difficult times,” the 22-year-old said.

After two seasons of playing with a false nine, City are still adjusting to having a striker with the physical presence of the Norwegian.

Phil Foden was criticised for failing to pass the ball to Haaland in goalscoring situations both against Bournemouth and in last week’s draw at Newcastle, but it was the England midfielder’s cross which set up Haaland’s first before he poked home a second and ran on to Silva’s pass for the third.

Great comeback today