Erling Haaland

Erling Haaland experienced an uncomfortable return match against Arsenal in the Premier League, with two opponents including a teenager teasing him after goals and the crowd at Emirates Stadium reminding the striker of his provocative comments in the teams’ last meeting.

Resentment clearly lingered more than four months after a 2-2 draw between the teams at City’s Etihad Stadium in their first meeting, which ended with Haaland throwing the ball at Arsenal defender Gabriel after a late equalizer and telling Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to stay humble, eh?

Both appeared direct responses to Haaland’s behaviour in the fiery 2-2 draw between the clubs at the Etihad earlier this season. The 24-year-old celebrated John Stones’s late equaliser in that game by bouncing the ball off Gunners defender Gabriel’s head, and was then involved in altercations with both Arteta and Lewis-Skelly at the full-time whistle.

Haaland’s father, the former footballer Alfie Haaland, responded angrily to a picture of Lewis-Skelly’s celebration on social media, mocking Arsenal’s lack of recent trophy success in comparison to his son’s side Asked about the two incidents following the game, Arteta said he had not seen them but said: “There’s

nothing I want to discuss about that. That’s down to the players but they know my view on it and we have to focus on us Arsenal’s victory sees them cut the gap to Liverpool at the top of the Premier League to six points once more and, opens up a nine-point cushion to City in fourth.

Seemed to relish renewing his battle with Haaland. Brilliant in the air and made a couple of big blocks, too. What a performance from the 18-year-old. Kept Phil Foden and then scored his first goal for the club. Celebrated by mimicking Haaland’s celebration. Remarkable stuff.

The Norwegian exchanged words with Gabriel and then flexed the gold Premier League badge on the sleeve of the champions’ shirt. Getting one over on Haaland was something for them to celebrate, with daggers drawn before yesterday’s game begun when Gabriel said: “It’s a battle, a war”.

At the end of the game, the unmoved goal machine walked over to applaud the City fans, again pointing to the golden Prem badge and his mind. The Gunners were on top from the off and took the lead after just two minutes, Leandro Trossard alert to a risky John Stones pass across his own box and capitalising on a heavy touch from Manuel Akanji.

During that draw at the Etihad back, Haaland netted and then celebrated John Stones’ 98th minute leveller by throwing a ball at the back of Gabriel’s head At the time Arteta stood up for Lewis-Skelly after the brawl, in which Haaland famously told the Spanish manager to “stay humble”.

“You look at him, in every duel he goes, the way he reacts with his team-mates, you speak to him it’s constantly eye contact. The past two seasons saw Arsenal fall short of the Premier League title, with the current campaign hosting their third attempt at glory.

Whilst their defence is one of the best in the league, there has been an increased sense that a clinical striker is the glaring missing piece Ahead of this weekend’s clash between Arsenal and City, Deeney was asked whether he’d prefer to have Havertz or Haaland in his team.

From the very first minute, seemed up for the fight as Leandro Trossard pressed Manuel Akanji into making a calamitous error in possession and gift Martin Odegaard the opening goal.

Manchester City are used to winning such do-or-die fixtures and rolling teams over to habitually win major silverware. That was an apparent reference to a comment Haaland made following the reverse fixture in September when he told to ‘Stay Humble’. The Gunners reacted to Lewis-Skelly’s goals by

posting a photo of the left-back sitting down with his team-mates surrounding him, along with the comment: ‘This team His son endured a difficult day, aside from scoring his side’s equaliser 10 minutes after half-time. Thomas Partey quickly put the Gunners back ahead before Lewis-Skelly’s goal put the hosts in a commanding position.

“How we played in the last 30 minutes was not acceptable. Personally and collectively, it’s not us. It is not nice to be involved in that when you know it’s not your team in those situations. Credit to Arsenal, this is not an easy place to come to.

“For 65 minutes, we played some great football at times. We were in the game and it was a swinging point. It swung the wrong way for us. I am angry, upset personally and collectively about how the game finished.”

The 2023/24 campaign ended with Haaland winning two titles: the UEFA Super Cup and the English Premier League. In the Premier League, Haaland was once again a relentless scorer, this time netting 27 goals in 31 games. It earned him another Golden Boot in the competition and helped City to a fourth consecutive league title.

At international level, during the World 11 voting period, Haaland scored seven goals in four matches. The goals brought him even closer to Norway’s all-time leading scorer, Jorgen Juve; Juve’s record of 33 goals, which dated back to 1937, was finally broken by Haaland in October this year.

And finally after the game, Kendrick Lamar’s song ‘Humble’ rang around the speakers at the Emirates. Guardiola was questioned on that escalating mockery following the game, particularly on Lewis-Skelly’s celebration When asked about the incident, he said: “I didn’t see… they did that?” That’s good.” The Spaniard then sat silently looking at the table for a number of seconds, before again saying: “That’s good.”

“I only regret the last 25 minutes, we forgot to do what we should do, what we have done for 65/70 minutes. Of course it’s a difficult game starting in this stadium, against that team in the first minutes it’s happened many times this season,” he said. “But after 10/15 minutes I think we took the game and played really, really, really, really good and we are in it after 1-1 and good momentum we pass to make the transition with Omar [Marmoush] and a deflection and the third goal.

“I regret the last 15/20 minutes, the rest was a really good game for our side. It’s difficult to understand when you see the result but this is my feeling. It’s happened all season, we are giving away too many things, we are aware this cannot happen, it happened.