August saw the start of a new season as pre-season came to a close, we saw the Community Shield final and then 3 rounds of games of the new campaign before heading into September’s international break. Where last season Manchester City managed to hold off the potential threat of Arsenal and Liverpool, this season has started with the usual suspects impressing, while a few other sides have surprised in their opening fixtures to create interesting table positions at this very early stage.

This months NextGoalWinner player of the month winner is from one of those dominant sides as he and his City team are looking to add to last seasons league success, and have already claimed the Community Shield win over rivals United on penalties. With Guardiola’s long term City future in question ahead of the campaign, questions over their 115 charge legal battle and interesting transfer window where they lost a key attacking force and only added 1 name to their squad, some things certainly have continued as normal.

Erling Haaland has continued where he left off last season, as he has contributed an insane number of goals in the opening 3 games, including 2 hattricks in back to back wins. His goals have ensured City have started their season with a 100% record, and put aside any questions over losing Alvarez this summer by showing he can add even more goals to his usual return. Although there were other individuals who have impressed at this early stage of the season, Haaland’s incredible goal return and City’s perfect start cannot be overlooked, even if we are coming to expect this from him most weeks.

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Match By Match

August 18th: Chelsea 0-2 Manchester City – Starting off the season after 2 prior games in August in which Haaland played in the Community Shield game over rivals Manchester United, and earlier a pre-season game against their opening opponents in which Haaland bagged a hattrick, Chelsea were made to pay once again by Haaland and City as they cruised to an opening game victory. It wasn’t quite the hattrick scored in the pre-season meeting, but Haaland was influential when involved in this game, and produced what is becoming the typical showing of a clinical goal scoring nature and not needing much else. Haaland opened the scoring in the 18th minute with a brilliant piece of control while surrounded by defenders and finished with the clinical nature we’ve just come to expect. With only 17 touches in the game, it was a crucial few touches in this moment which rewarded City for their dominant opening display before Kovacic added the second later in the game. Haaland had a decent showing as it’s always different in judging his performances due to the fact he can be out of games for long periods before stepping up with a key chance, but alongside his goal he also managed 100% shots on target, 100% dribble success and 100% aerial duels won. For City and Haaland however the only stat that will matter is the dominant victory and getting their star striker off the mark for the season.

August 24th: Manchester City 4-1 Ipswich Town – The scoring returned back to it’s typical volume for Haaland in their second game of the season, as newcomers Ipswich almost offered up an early scare to Guardiola’s side as they opened the scoring in the 7th minute, but Haaland wasn’t having it and equalised in the 12th with a penalty, before De Bruyne and Haaland added 2 and 3 before the Norwegian added his third in the closing stages to provide a first hattrick of the campaign, and another dominant victory to start the season in style. After a 7.5/10 FotMob rating vs Chelsea, he was back to the top ranking with a 9.7/10 rating in the home win. With 3 goals, 7 shots on target, winning 100% aerial duels and still only needing 22 touches to do so, it was a strong showing that proved how he is still the difference maker in this City side.

August 31st: West Ham United 1-3 Manchester City – It was back to back hattricks for Haaland as City travelled away to London to take on West Ham in their third and final Premier League game of August, and Haaland managed to reach his 7th goal of the season in just 3 games. It was another early showing from City as they went ahead in the 10th minute, before an own goal from Dias brought things level in the 19th minute. But City were again capable of edging ahead as Haaland added goal no.2 in the 30th minute and then the third and final in the 88th minute to secure a perfect start and incredible goal average of 2.3 goals per game for the season so far. With his second hattrick in as many games, he also secured another 9.7/10 FotMob rating as he managed 5 shots, 100% tackles won and again only needed 21 touches to do so. We could talk for a long time of the manner in which Haaland has started the season, but the 2.3 goals per game average, 9.0 FotMob average rating for the month, and only using 60 touches to achieve this, he is on another level and destined for another incredible season and surely we will be writing about Haaland a lot more this season in our POTM awards.