‘Bonkers’ Haaland breaks 40-goal barrier, Conte slams Spurs owners and players after collapse, late Chelsea kick
Unstoppable Erling Haaland broke the 40-goal mark in his first season at Manchester City with a hat-trick in the 6-0 rout of Burnley in the FA Cup quarter-final.
Fresh off his five-goal volley against RB Leipzig in midweek, the Norwegian striker proved insatiable again to demolish the league leaders at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
The 22-year-old scored trademark goals in the 32nd and 35th minutes and completed his sixth hat-trick of the season when he converted a rebound to end the tie just before the hour mark.
He now has an astonishing 42 goals for City since joining from Borussia Dortmund last June.
Julian Alvarez then netted twice with a goal from substitute Cole Palmer in between as City went wild to score 13 goals in the week to advance to the semi-finals.
It was a trying day for former City hero Vincent Kompany, who guided Burnley to the brink of a swift return to the Premier League after last year’s relegation.
Haaland is just the sixth player in the Premier League era to score at least 40 goals in all competitions in a season – joining Ruud van Nistelrooy (44), Mohamed Salah (44), Cristiano Ronaldo (42), Andy Cole (41) and Harry Kane (41).
And with City still in three competitions, it surely won’t be long before he turns 50.
“He could score 50 goals, maybe even 60. It’s crazy,” Premier League top scorer Alan Shearer told the BBC’s Match of the Day Live studio.
“Haaland is a beast. He’s a goal-scoring machine. He lives and breathes goals.
Haaland was more discreet about his extraordinary stats.
“It’s been a good last two games,” said Haaland, who scored his first FA Cup goals.
“7-0 and 6-0 before the international break is impressive and I’m really happy.
“Every goal means a lot to me and every goal for the team means a lot.”
Burnley actually managed City well for the first half hour and created some decent chances.
But once Haaland accelerated Alvarez’s through ball and touched the ball past Burnley’s Bailey Peacock-Farrell to break the deadlock, the writing was on the wall.
Phil Foden’s low cross netted Haaland’s second goal and his hat-trick came after Foden’s effort hit the post.
Alvarez also impressed and he took his goals superbly while young Palmer’s goal made it a most satisfying day for a City side suddenly back to their best.
The other three FA Cup sixth round fixtures are on Sunday with Manchester United at home to Fulham, Sheffield United hosting Blackburn Rovers and Brighton and Hove Albion hosting fourth tier survivors Grimsby Town.
Meanwhile, Leeds slipped out of the Premier League relegation zone with a manic 4-2 win over Wolves while Tottenham’s grip on a top-four place loosened after throwing away a lead from two goals to draw 3-3 at last Southampton. .
Leeds were in danger of losing a 3-0 lead at Molineux on Saturday as the hosts reduced two goals before going down to 10 men, but Rodrigo put the game aside with his fourth goal in injury time.
Jack Harrison, Luke Ayling and Rasmus Kristensen also struck for Leeds while Wolves had Jonny, a previous goalscorer, shown in red for an 84th-minute stud challenge and unused substitute Matheus Nunes was also sent off in time. stoppage, furious that Rodrigo’s goal was not ruled out for a foul.
It is just the second win in 13 league games for Leeds and takes the side from 19th to 14th place in the extremely tight bottom half of the table.
While the title race has long been a two-way battle between Arsenal and Manchester City, the relegation battle involves no less than nine teams who are in serious danger of finishing in the bottom three.
Only four points now separate 12th-placed Crystal Palace and bottom-placed Southampton, who rallied to draw at home to Spurs after receiving a controversial injury-time penalty.
James Ward-Prowse smashed that kick into the net for a point which helps give Southampton some hope of avoiding the fall, even though they have played at least one game more than most teams directly above them.
It could be a costly meltdown for Tottenham, however, as Antonio Conte’s side had a chance to climb tentatively above Manchester United in third.
The Spurs manager went on a sustained rant about his players and club ownership afterwards.
“Tottenham’s story is this – 20 years ago this owner and they never won anything. Why?” says Conte.
“The fault is only with the club, or with every manager who stays here,” Conte said. “I saw the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk upsetting the figure of the manager and protecting the other situation at all times.
“So far I’ve been trying to hide the situation but not now because, I repeat, I don’t want to see what I saw today because it’s unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans.”
Tottenham have won a trophy since the ownership group, chaired by Daniel Levy, took over the club in 2001 – the League Cup in 2008.
They have had 11 different managers in that time, including three since the departure of Mauricio Pochettino in 2019, who took them to the Champions League final before being sacked six months later.
Conte said it was time for the club and the players to start taking responsibility.
“Not just the club, the manager and the staff. The players have to be involved in this situation because it’s time to change this situation if Tottenham want to change,” he said.
“If they want to continue on this path, they can change managers, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change. Believe me.
“Maybe before in other games something can change. But here we have been used to it for a long time. The club has the responsibility for the transfer market, every coach who stayed here has the responsibility. And the players The players Where are the players?
“From my experience, I can tell you that if you want to be competitive, if you want to fight, you have to improve that aspect. And that aspect, I can tell you, right now is really, really low. And I only see 11 players playing for themselves.
Asked why that was the case at Tottenham, Conte said: “Because they’re used to it here, they’re used to it. They don’t play for anything big here. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.
Spurs are now just two points clear of fifth-placed Newcastle, who have played two fewer games.
Leicester remained firmly entrenched in the relegation battle despite snapping a five-game losing streak in all competitions with a 1-1 draw at Brentford keeping them one point above the drop zone, two points ahead of Southampton.
In the middle of the table, Aston Villa have won three from four games with a 3-0 win over Bournemouth.
Ellis Simms scored his first Everton goal to give Sean Dyche’s side a valuable point with a last-minute 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea broke Everton’s resistance seven minutes after half-time when Joao Felix drilled through a low drive, but they were pushed back when Abdoulaye Doucoure leveled it home from a corner after 69 minutes.
Everton were tied for just seven minutes until Kai Havertz scored from the spot after Reece James was fouled by James Tarkowski.
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