Erling Haaland was in superb form on Saturday evening as he scored four goals to guide Manchester City to a 5-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Needing three points to keep pace with Arsenal after the Gunners beat Bournemouth earlier in the day, City played like a team without pressure, dominating the visitors as Haaland completed his hat-trick before the break.
Hwang Hee-chan threatened to spark a comeback early in the second half but Haaland silenced Wolves with a stunning fourth goal and Julian Alvarez added a late fifth to keep City in the driver's seat of the Premier League title race.
How the game happened
City had few goals in the first half but were given the chance to open the scoring after ten minutes when Josko Gvardiol was brought down in the penalty area by Rayan Ait-Nouri.
Haaland stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards to give City a well-deserved first-time lead.
Jose Sa needed to make a superb save to deny Haaland a second minutes later, but the Norwegian went ahead with another flying effort on 35 minutes that went into the back of the net.
A VAR check at half-time gave Haaland the opportunity to secure his hat-trick on the spot. Nelson Semedo's trip on the City striker was eventually spotted and punished as Haaland made it three times against Wolves.
Eight minutes into the second half, Wolves pulled one back when Hwang headed into an empty net after Ederson failed to deal with the ball.
Unhappy with the idea of sharing the limelight, Haaland went down the other side, cut inside his defender and fired home a fine effort to mark the first time he had scored more than three goals in a Premier League game.
Sa tipped another Haaland effort over the bar soon after as City simply refused to go down, but there was to be no fifth goal from the star of the show, who looked frustrated to see himself withdrawn late in the game.
Haaland's substitution continued where he left off, however, as Alvarez slotted home with five minutes to go to cap a five-star performance for Pep Guardiola's outfit.
GK: Ederson – 5/10 – It was largely uninvolving but should have done a lot better with Hwang's cross.
RB: Kyle Walker – 6/10 – He's untested defensively and hasn't needed to burst his guts to make an impact on offense, but he's pulled off the occasional spectacular pass.
CB: Manuel Akanji – 7/10 – He is very comfortable at the back and even had the chance to insert himself in midfield.
CB: Nathan Ake – 6/10 – He impressed in the first half but was caught napping early in the second when Wolves got their goal.
LB: Josko Guardiol – 8/10 – Endless power descends on the left wing. He won the first penalty early on and never stopped trying to create more goals.
DM: Rodri – 9/10 – He is in charge of the midfield battle and picked some excellent passes to ensure that City's pressure never ends. He went with two assistants.
DM: Mateo Kovacic – 7/10 – A delightful pass or two kept City in the bottom third.
RM: Bernardo Silva – 7/10 – It keeps coming and going. His strength was too much for the Wolves to handle.
AM: Kevin De Bruyne – 6/10 – It was surprisingly quiet in the game that City was handling brutally. His last pass was missing.
LM: Phil Foden – 7/10 – You didn't enter this game as you expected but you were still surprised by the good passing of Haaland's fourth goal.
ST: Erling Haaland – 11/10 – The merciless. Endlessly. This was Haaland at his best.
What you are holding
SUB: John Stones (69' for Ake) – 6/10
SUB: Jeremy Doku (80' for Silva) – N/A
SUB: Jack Grealish (80' for Foden) – N/A
SUB: Matheus Nunes (80' for De Bruyne) – N/A
SUB: Julian Alvarez (83' from Haaland) – N/A
Subs used: Stefan Ortega (GK), Ruben Dias, Sergio Gomez, Rico Lewis
The manager
Pep Guardiola – 9/10 – This was emphatic. Guardiola wanted everyone to know that City are still favorites to win the title, and he has set his side to mercilessly tear Wolves apart.
GK: Jose Sa – 6/10 – He can't do anything about any terms. He even made a few good saves to prevent this from getting embarrassing.
CB: Nelson Semedo – 4/10 – Couldn't get close to City's forward line. He tried to chase Haaland to get the second penalty but ended up tripping him.
CB: Max Kilman – 3/10 – Chasing the shadows as the City experts surround him. He looked to leave Haaland with his second goal.
CB: Toti Gomes – 4/10 – He tried to fix things in the background but usually he just called the trouble on himself.
RM: Rayan Ait-Nouri – 5/10 – Maybe a bit unlucky to concede the first penalty but he didn't give a good account of himself here.
CM: Joao Gomes – 6/10 – Some good moments to try and get Wolves into the game but he missed Rodri and Kovacic.
CM: Mario Lemina – 5/10 – He tried his best to continue but received a yellow card before the break.
CM: Boubacar Traore – 4/10 – He found it very difficult against Rodri and Kovacic, his experience was too much for him.
LM: Hugo Bueno – 4/10 – He gave nothing in attack and instead tried to focus on defense, but was given the run-round by Silva.
ST: Hwang Hee-chan – 5/10 – He clearly put in the effort and was rewarded when the ball fell to his feet early in the second half.
ST: Matheus Cunha – 4/10 – He felt more hungry for service than Hwang.
What you are holding
SUB: Jean-Ricner Bellegarde (46' for Lemina) – 7/10
SUB: Tawanda Chirewa (87' for Hwang) – N/A
Subs used: Daniel Bentley (GK), Matt Doherty, Santiago Bueno, Wesley Okoduwa, Enso Gonzalez, Nathan Fraser, Pablo Sarabia
The manager
Tim Jenkins – 2/10 – Gary O'Neil's stance would like to erase this one from his memory. Wolves are not giving anything away here, but few teams could match City in this form.
Man of the match – Erling Haaland (Man City)
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