Rampant Haaland bags hat-trick as City hit Forest for six

MANCHESTER, England: Erling Haaland continued the blistering start to his Manchester City career by scoring a hat-trick inside 38 minutes as the Premier League champions smashed promoted Nottingham Forest 6-0 on Wednesday (Aug 31).

Haaland has scored a league record nine goals in five games since joining City from Borussia Dortmund and has back-to-back hat-tricks after netting three in Saturday's win over Crystal Palace.

"Amazing, nothing more to say," said the Norwegian.

"It was about keeping doing what we did in the second half against Palace, play, play, play - it was nice. It's been good so far, I'm not complaining," he said.

The 22-year-old put City ahead in the 12th minute, latching on to a cross from Phil Foden to hook it past Forest keeper Dean Henderson.

Henderson's poor clearance then led to City's second when Bernardo Silva collected the ball and launched a counter with a swift exchange of passes and Foden again provided the assist to Haaland who slotted home from close range.

Haaland completed his treble, leaping to power in a far-post header after defender John Stones had nodded a corner back across the face of goal.

Forest were unable to contain an excellent City who made it 4-0 shortly after the break with a fine Joao Cancelo drive from the edge of the box.

Julian Alvarez added two more for City, both powerful strikes, as Pep Guardiola's side made it four wins out of five games with 19 goals scored.

The Argentine's first Premier League goal came after some clever play from Riyad Mahrez with Alvarez driving home from a tight angle.

Haaland was then substituted in the 69th minute although Forest could hardly be relieved to see Kevin De Bruyne replacing him.

The Belgian created City's sixth, charging up field after a