Erling Haaland scored his fourth Manchester City hat-trick and took his goal tally for the season to 31 in all competitions as relegation-threated Wolves were swept aside by Pep Guardiola’smen.
By his own incredibly high standards, Haaland had been going through a barren spell.
But after ending a three-game drought against Tottenham on Thursday, the Norwegian demolished Wolves in a 12-minute spell either side of half-time.
Haaland initially rose to head home Kevin de Bruyne’s cross to put the hosts ahead at the break.
He then drove home a penalty after Ilkay Gundogan had been fouled by Wolves skipper Ruben Neves, before sweeping home his third after Jose Sa’s pass out of his six-yard box went straight to Riyad Mahrez.
Haaland has now scored 25 goals in City’s first 20 Premier League games. That is five more than Luis Suarez managed in 2013-14, the previous highest figure at this stage in the season.
The Norwegian striker’s current total would have been enough to earn him the Golden Boot in more than half of the 30 campaigns since the English top flight was renamed in 1992.
He has also already scored as many Premier League hat-tricks as Mo Salah, and a third of Sergio Aguero’s record 12, which the Argentine achieved across his magnificent decade with City.
Only Alan Shearer has scored more Premier League hat-tricks in a single season, with five.
