Erling Haaland feels like he belongs to the Premier League as much as he does Manchester City, believes Jamie Carragher.
The Norway international continued his stunning start to life in the English top flight with another hat-trick in Sunday's 6-3 derby demolition job against Manchester United.
It was the Leeds-born attacker's third consecutive three-goal haul in a home league game – a competition first – and furthers his tally for the season to 14 in eight games.
Now, former Liverpool defender Carragher, speaking as a Sky Sports pundit, feels the 22-year-old's talents are something to be savoured by fans up and down the country rather than just at one club.
"He's not just City's, he's the Premier League's [player]," Carragher said on Monday Night Football.
"That's what it feels like to me. It felt like that when he joined, it was something to be enjoyed by the whole Premier League."
Carragher's fellow pundit Gary Neville echoed his sentiments, adding: "I can't think of another time where the Premier League has signed a player in the last 30 years where you've thought [they are] a world star.
"[Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Thierry] Henry, [Virgil] van Dijk, [Kevin] De Bruyne, [Mohamed] Salah – all these players have gone to be some of the best in the world. They weren't that when they signed into the Premier League.
"But what we've signed here is somebody that everybody knew was going to be one of the best in the world."
Officials stood down after offside error in Liverpool’s defeat to Tottenham
The match officials at the heart of the “significant human error” which saw Liverpool wrongly denied a goal in Saturday’s defeat to Tottenham have been stood down from duty for the rest of the weekend.
Darren England was due to be fourth official at Sunday’s Premier League match between Nottingham Forest and Brentford, while Dan Cook was to be assistant referee for Monday’s west London derby between Fulham and Chelsea.
But the Professional Game Match Officials Limited announced on Sunday morning that England, who was VAR for Saturday’s game at Tottenham, has been replaced by Craig Pawson, while Eddie Smart will step in for Cook, who was the assistant VAR to England.
“Darren England, VAR on the Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool fixture, and Dan Cook, AVAR on the same game, have been replaced for the Nottingham Forest v Brentford and Fulham v Chelsea matches today and tomorrow night respectively,” a PGMOL statement said.
“Craig Pawson will now assume England’s duties as fourth official at the City Ground while Eddie Smart will take over from Cook as assistant referee at Craven Cottage.”
On Saturday, PGMOL admitted the pair had failed to act after Luis Diaz’s 34th-minute strike was incorrectly ruled out for offside. Still images of the incident showed Cristian Romero play Diaz onside.
The disallowed goal came with the match still at 0-0 but after Curtis Jones had been controversially sent off following England’s intervention.
Son Heung-min put Spurs in front moments after Diaz’s goal was disallowed, and although Cody Gakpo levelled, Tottenham went on to win 2-1 thanks to a stoppage-time own goal from Joel Matip, with Liverpool finishing with nine men after Diogo Jota also saw red.
In a statement on Saturday, PGMOL said: “PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool.
“The goal by Luis Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials.
“This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error.”
Kai Havertz showed his mindset is spot on – Declan Rice
Declan Rice hailed the mindset of Kai Havertz after he broke his Arsenal duck with a goal in Saturday’s impressive Premier League win at Bournemouth.
The Gunners strolled to a 4-0 victory at the Vitality Stadium as Bukayo Saka headed them in front with a Martin Odegaard penalty doubling the lead before Havertz stroked home a spot-kick of his own and Ben White wrapped up the points with a stoppage-time header.
The win takes Arsenal a point off the top of the table ahead of the visit of reigning champions Manchester City next Sunday.
View this post on InstagramIt remains to be seen if Havertz will start that game having struggled to make an impact following his £65million move across London from Chelsea in the summer, although manager Mikel Arteta said he hoped this would “change everything” for the Germany international.
Saka had initially collected the ball to take the second penalty before ceding responsibility to Havertz, whose conversion was met with jubilant celebrations from team-mates and the travelling fans alike.
“It was emotional, for the fans, for Kai, for everyone involved, because we want him to succeed so much,” said fellow new recruit Rice.
“Honestly, he works his socks off every day in training. In games he gives absolutely everything.
“He’s had chances to score this year, hadn’t scored yet, but today to slot away a penalty in that high-pressure moment shows the mindset that he’s got, shows the talent he’s got and his all-round performance was so special.
“We’re a young group of lads who really believe and trust in the manager. He’s brought that environment into the club, and the whole energy around the place in terms of staff, the players, the fans at the Emirates.
“It’s such a special feeling. It’s really good to be a part of and like I said, that’s why I came to Arsenal, It’s real honour to play for this club and when there are special moments like this, it’s really good.”
Bournemouth remain winless in the Premier League under head coach Andoni Iraola and never looked like ending that run against their superior visitors.
“We have to be better,” Iraola told afcbTV.
“We have some minimum (requirements), everyone needs to run and needs to fight – we need to be better especially at both ends.
“We were not pressing correctly but we all tried and didn’t give up but we have to do much better. The fans have been very good with us, we cannot ask for more.”
Celtic never stop, but could Michael Beale? cinch Premiership talking points
It was a dramatic Saturday in the cinch Premiership.
The day started with one of the most thrilling finales to a game at Fir Park for years and there was soon a bigger story up the road in Glasgow.
Here are five things we learned from the weekend’s action.
Michael Beale is on the precipiceA four-match winning run failed to silence many of the doubters among the Rangers support after a heavy defeat by PSV Eindhoven and a home loss to Celtic led to calls for the manager to be sacked. Those demands were reignited after Aberdeen’s 3-1 win at Ibrox left Rangers seven points behind their city rivals after losing three of their first seven league games. The board may see a lengthy injury list as a mitigating factor and question whether changing manager for a second time inside 12 months is advisable. But Beale has little room for error if he is to remain in the job.
Alex Lowry is making his markThe on-loan Rangers midfielder has been on the Hearts bench for the past four games but he will be difficult to leave out next weekend after following up his midweek Viaplay Cup winner at Kilmarnock with an assist for Alan Forrest’s headed winner against Ross County in Dingwall. Head coach Steven Naismith said of the 20-year-old: “I challenge him all the time to give us an end product, and I thought he was really good off the ball today. We can’t have a luxury player, he needs to be in certain positions and I thought he did that really well when he came on.”
Celtic still never stopAnge Postecoglou’s mantra helped Celtic to some last-gasp wins in the past two seasons and they were at it again at Fir Park when Matt O’Riley netted seven minutes into stoppage time, moments after Blair Spittal had levelled for Motherwell. Luis Palma had only opened the scoring for Celtic in the 87th minute. The winner sparked wild celebrations and the Celtic fans’ feelgood factor was further fuelled by the news from Ibrox later in the day.
St Johnstone still looking for elusive winDara Costelloe gave the Perth side the lead at home to Livingston but captain Liam Gordon later conceded a penalty and received a red card in separate incidents as Sean Kelly earned Livi a 1-1 draw from the spot. Steven MacLean’s side are still playing catch-up after a slow start to the transfer window but they are four points adrift with a trip to in-form Aberdeen to follow and the wait for a first win could become a millstone.
Aberdeen find consistencyThe Dons have hit their groove in emphatic fashion after a poor start to the season. Barry Robson’s side made it three wins in a week with their Ibrox heroics, following wins over Ross County in both the league and Viaplay Cup. Despite failing to win their first five matches, Aberdeen now find themselves just four points behind Rangers and with plenty to look forward to, starting with Thursday’s visit of HJK Helsinki in the Europa Conference League.
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