Pep Guardiola praised one of the best performances from Erling Haaland in a Manchester City shirt as they beat Arsenal 3-1.
Haaland's last visit to North London saw him fail to record a shot in the box for the first time in his short career in English football as City's 1-0 defeat by Spurs in North London prompted wild overreactions about his place in the team and at the club. However, those critics will once again be silent after Haaland's 26th league goal of the campaign - the most any City player has ever scored in a single season and with 15 games still to go - helped City go top.
In addition to the goal, the Norwegian was a problem for the Arsenal defence all night. He almost won a penalty after getting on the wrong side of Gabriel and had an important role in the build-up for Jack Grealish's goal.
Also read: Arsenal full-time reactions show significance of huge City win
"It was brilliant, one of the best. We should play more that way - we told him," said Guardiola. "We have to contact in the first step, so central defenders to Rodri or Bernardo, to Kevin or Gundo you have to find wingers and strikers.
"We have to be more direct, not for the long balls but passes. The first half the problem was it was just long balls, not passes. When people complain of no hat-trick every time it is standards. When your standards are 26 goals so far in few games, people expect this is always going to happen like people expect we will win the Premier League every single season.
"We are not going to win the Premier League every single season., what we want is to fight for that and not give it to them, if you want the crown then fight for that. if you win it, it is because you deserve it. Today, in many things, in the bad moments in the game we were not 'oh my god' not there. Everyone was really focused. In the second half we were much much better."
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