Pep Guardiola reactions show Erling Haaland record goal won't hide Man City struggles vs West Ham

The Thursday morning back pages will laud Erling Haaland's incredible 35th Premier League goal of the season, adding as a footnote that Manchester City are back top of the Premier League after winning their crucial game in hand.

Read those headlines, and City's 3-0 victory over West Ham will be seen as comfortable, inevitable, and a procession on the way to another Premier League title. The reality couldn't be further from the truth, with City, their fans, and Pep Guardiola feeling the nerves right until Haaland was sliding away to celebrate his most impressive record yet.

Take nothing from Haaland, who opened his account at West Ham on the opening day amid questions of his adaptability to English football and predictions that Liverpool's Darwin Nunez would outscore him. Fast forward 32 games, and 33 goals (or 51 now in all competitions) and Haaland continues to make a mockery of those theories. It was fitting his record goal came against West Ham.

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It feels the only person capable of beating Haaland's 35 goals in a season is Haaland himself, and he still has five league games to extend that record.

However, Haaland's goal was his only real contribution of a quiet individual performance, and that reflected a collective effort that struggled to get going on and off the pitch all night. The title nerves were well and truly set in, along with the tiredness that Guardiola alluded to pre-match.

Guardiola had already made a statement of his players' condition with his team selection, which echoed his pre-match comments that his players cannot be tired, however much they are exerting themselves at the moment. He preached the