Man City 5-1 Wolves: Player ratings as Haaland scores four to send title message

Erling Haaland was at his outrageous best on Saturday evening as he racked up four goals to steer 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 immune to pressure, dominating the visitors as Haaland completed his hat-trick before half-time.

Hwang Hee-chan threatened to spark a comeback early in the second half but Haaland silenced Wolves with a stunning fourth and Julian Alvarez added a fifth late on to keep City in the driver's seat in the Premier League title race.

City had a few half-sights of goal in the opening stages but were gifted the chance to open the scoring after ten minutes when Josko Gvardiol was sent crashing to the ground in the penalty area by Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Haaland stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards to give City the lead their early efforts deserved.

Jose Sa was needed to make an excellent save to stop Haaland from heading a second a few minutes later, but the Norwegian came out on top with another aerial effort 35 minutes in which arrowed into the back of the net.

A VAR check on the stroke of half-time handed Haaland the chance to secure his hat-trick from the spot. Nelson Semedo's trip on the City striker was eventually spotted and punished as Haaland bagged yet another triple against Wolves.

Eight minutes into the second half, Wolves snatched one back as Hwang slotted into an empty net after Ederson failed to deal with a cross.

Unhappy with the idea of sharing the spotlight, Haaland went straight down the other end, cut inside his defender and curled home a beautiful effort to mark the first time he has scored more than three goals in a Premier League game.

Sa