Manchester City hotshot Erling Haaland has insisted that the secret behind his remarkable goalscoring record is simply the pre-match Lasagne his father, Alf-Inge, whips up in the kitchen.
Haaland junior has adapted seamlessly to life in the Premier League - and he continued his incredible recent form by blitzing Manchester United with a stunning hat-trick in Sunday's 6-3 triumph. The 22-year-old has now plundered 17 goals in just 11 matches since joining the club from Borussia Dortmund, while his latest treble means he has notched hat-trick's in three consecutive home league matches.
The irrepressible forward had a similar record in Germany, where he bagged 86 goals in just 89 games during his two-and-a-half-year spell at Dortmund. And the Norwegian international has attributed his recent purple patch to his father's special Lasagne recipe.
"I've had it before every home game now and that turns out fairly well, so there has to be something special he adds to it,' Haaland said after Sunday's match. "I help out very little. I mostly lie on the couch watching him. That's the way it works."
Haaland said that he could sense something "special" was coming as a result of the energy in training after the international break. He added: "Before the game and in training on Friday, I felt a hungry club that wanted to attack this game which is exactly what we did.
"I came to the training ground and I felt something special was going to happen. It is hard to explain, you have to experience the feeling and the energy around. It was special and we showed this."
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Haaland has won plenty of plaudits for his displays in recent weeks, with Pep Guardiola insisting after the derby that "no one can compete" with how good the striker is at his age. The Manchester City man's display also impressed pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, with the former urging people to witness Haaland's brilliance in person.
Neville told Sky Sports on Monday night: “He’s one of those players that I would say if you get an opportunity as a football fan to get a ticket in the ground where he's playing. Go and watch him.
"You could go watch Ronaldo, go and watch Messi, go watch something that's just completely you know, it's like a one-off type opportunity to watch a player and that's what Erling Haaland is. He is exceptional.”
Carragher added: "It feels like anything is possible with Haaland. It is a derby and there aren’t many hat-tricks in this fixture.
"It felt like a signing for the Premier League, he is everyone’s signing, not just City. We normally develop world class players, they don’t arrive here. We’ve got one now."
