Haaland an 'unstoppable' force, says Guardiola | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola described Erling Haaland as ‘unstoppable' in the wake of the striker’s sensational 11th City career hat-trick which sealed a fine 3-1 Premier League win at West Ham.

A week on from netting a treble at home to Ipswich, City’s master predator was at his lethal best once more, scoring twice in the first half at the London Stadium and then sealing victory with an assured finish to round off his latest treble five minutes from time.

It took his tally for the season to seven and made it an astonishing 70 goals in 69 league appearances for City with his overall figure for the Club now standing at 97.

And for Guardiola, his exploits in the capital were also evidence of the way Haaland has come back this term feeling refreshed and eager to work even harder in order to try and improve on his extraordinary exploits over his first two seasons at the Etihad.

“Erling's unstoppable, there's no central defender, not even with a gun, to stop him,” the City boss declared.

“He's playing much better in everything. The details, he stays 20 minutes or half an hour after training sessions.

“Last season not even once was he there because he didn't feel good - [he was] tired, niggles.

“He was there and at the end he's so smart. He needs the team and what he needs is the team to give him more balls in the final third.

“With Rico, Kevin, Gundo, McAtee, we're going to create those situations because they're really good in small spaces.

“We need players with crosses, we are still not so clever. Jeremy arrives in the final third and we are not precise enough. We improve in that department.

“After that, we know how clinical he is. Everybody knows it.”

Guardiola was also at pains to praise Haaland’s superb work ethic and desire to help the team.

WATCH: Lewis applauds 'unbelievable' Haaland

However, though a third consecutive league win cemented City’s place at the top of the table and maintained our perfect start to the season, the boss insisted the real work was still to come.

“Always Erling scores goals and it's what he has to do. We are happy for another hat-trick, the quality of the finishing but he was involved with the game today,” Pep pointed out.

“He didn't lose one ball and he played unbelievable - not just with the ball but also defensively and offensively. He gave an extra pass.

“I'm really pleased for him but now officially pre-season is over and the national break starts the real season so we see how he recovers for this amount of games.

“We're really pleased to have one title already [the Community Shield] and nine points - the season starts after 10 or 11 fixtures.

“But it is important for us after the short preparation for most of the players and after winning the Premier League last season we see that they are still there, they want to compete and play good and understand the processes."