Extra training, more sunlight and removing ‘negative electrons’: Behind Erling Haaland’s fast start

Plus, four ways Arsenal can shackle Manchester City striker who has scored nine goals in four Premier League games so far this season

There is one goal in particular, from the nine Erling Haaland has already scored in the Premier League this season, that caused extra excitement at Manchester City.
It was the first, the opening goal in the win away to Chelsea, when Haaland held off both Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella before deftly dinking the ball back across goalkeeper Robert Sánchez and into the net.
It was a finish that owed everything to Haaland’s sense of anticipation, his strength, his mobility and his balance. But it was also a finish in which he took his time. The television commentators raved about his “power”, but Haaland did not lash the ball. It was simply not about power.
Instead, it was a wonderfully delicate finish and it spoke of a centre-forward who is at the top of his game and who is maturing. It also spoke of one who has, again, honed his finishing during the close season. It is not necessarily a finish he would previously have executed so perfectly.
If Haaland scores against Arsenal on Sunday it will be his 100th goal in just his 105th game for City. It will equal a record set by Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid, who is currently the fastest ever player to get to a century of goals.
But Ronaldo joined Madrid when he was 24. Haaland only turned 24 on July 1. The fact is that neither Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi had the goals-per-game ratio of Haaland at his age (or any age). And Haaland is still not in his prime. He is coming into his prime – and that is a scary thought for opponents. In his third season in the Premier League he is also more and more comfortable in that intense environment.
Haaland is also rested. Ask those who know him, and those at City, about why he has hit the ground running and they will say there are many factors most of which point to his fierce dedication to improve and to continue to do whatever it takes to maximise his talent: whether that is diet, sleep, yoga, meditation or even ‘grounding’ – standing barefoot on the ground – as he believes it removes negative electrons. Sunlight, grounding and drinking filtered water form part of his daily routine.
But the key comment has come from Pep Guardiola. After Haaland’s hat-trick against West Ham United, having also scored three against Ipswich Town, the City manager said: “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 – tired, niggles.”
Those extra 20 to 30 minutes on the pitches at the Etihad Campus matter. They have afforded Haaland even more time to work on his finishing because he is so refreshed. While almost everyone else was at the European Championship or the Copa América Haaland, because Norway did not qualify for the Euros, enjoyed his longest break from football in seven years. It was the longest since he was a 17-year-old at Molde under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
In all he had 36 days off – 10 days longer than he has previously had – after his season finally ended with two friendly internationals for Norway, scoring four goals in games against Kosovo (yet another hat-trick) and Denmark.
Haaland’s season finished on June 8 and he did not have to report back for pre-season training until July 15 and at a time when player load and fixture congestion is a hot topic for elite players – his City team-mate Rodri warned that they were close to going on strike – that is an unusual break which he has capitalised upon.
Haaland will certainly not get it next summer, not least because of City’s participation in the forthcoming Club World Cup which, extraordinarily, is due to run in the United States from June 15 to July 13 if they make the final. No-one has got their heads around that schedule, not yet.
And so, naturally, Haaland enjoyed his summer. It began in Marbella, where he owns a villa and was seen DJ-ing at the Playa Padre beach club while he, his girlfriend Isabel Haugseng Johansen, family and friends – including Norway team-mate Erik Botheim – hired a luxury yacht and sailed from Saint-Tropez, having spent time in Cannes, to the island of Capri off the coast of Naples.
There were also trips back to Marbella and to Paris and, of course, time spent in Norway, posting a photograph of himself on Instagram meditating on the rocks in the Lotus position in the middle of a river in the mountain area of Voss. There was also a visit to his hometown of Byrne before he returned to Manchester. It is not just about the physical benefits but also the mental ones of having a break. Haaland is playing with a clear head.
He actually managed to switch off and recover and his only complaint, jokingly, was the sore back he suffered from chopping wood back in Norway, something his father, Alfie, always tells him to do.
In detailing all of that it should not be forgotten that Haaland normally starts campaigns with a bang – although usually not quite so big a bang. In his first season in the Premier League he scored six goals in four games. A year later, it was the same. Even the pattern was the same. He scored two goals in the first game, none in the second, one in the third and a hat-trick in the fourth. This season it has been one goal, then back-to-back hat-tricks then a brace.
Guardiola has also noticed that Haaland is dropping deeper, keeping the ball, and understanding when he needs to be more involved in games. It needs to be remembered that he is a young player who is still developing in every aspect.
Interestingly Haaland, who is a very popular figure in the dressing room and around the club, where he is courteous and chatty with staff, is also showing leadership qualities and responsibility.
One of the biggest and toughest lessons of last season was how Haaland had to sacrifice himself for the team, almost acting as a decoy in games, occupying up to three defenders, and creating space for his team-mates. A lot of that unselfish work went unnoticed in the criticism especially from former players who should have known better – but Guardiola noticed it.
Which brings us onto another factor: proving critics wrong. Haaland is undoubtedly measured ridiculously highly and is weirdly talked about as if he is almost not human.
In an exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport last year he remarked: “It’s more shocking to people when I don’t score”. And that is true. It is as if he is held to a different standard to other strikers. He also missed two months of last season through a foot injury while Guardiola has admitted Haaland has rarely been injury-free.
“The difference is that last season, he feels his body. [He had] niggles and was tired, but now he feels better,” he said. “In first season he came from [Borussia] Dortmund with problems, especially in the first month.”
Haaland concurred. “I have never felt better,” he said on pre-season tour to the United States, adding: “I don’t have any pain in my body, which is the first time for a long time”. It is a simple fact that is so often overlooked.
Last season Haaland did not score for five games – just five – towards the end of the campaign including the goalless draw at the Etihad against Arsenal. It prompted a statement from Roy Keane who acknowledged “in terms of in front of goal, he’s the best in the world” but added of Haaland’s “general play” that: “He’s almost like a League Two player, that’s how I look at him”.
It was a ridiculous, spiteful thing to say and, of course, there is history between Keane and Alfie. Meanwhile Erling went on to score nine times in the final seven league games as he helped City to win the title for a fourth year in a row.
After claiming four against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Haaland responded, when asked about Keane’s comments: “I don’t really care that much about that man, so that’s all right”. It was similar to the withering put-down for Cucurella who had sang about “Haaland trembles, Cucurella is coming” after Spain won the Euros. It was a bizarre reference especially considering there is no history between the pair and they have barely faced each other. “He is a funny man. Last season, he asked for my shirt and now he’s singing bad stuff about me,” Haaland said, dismissively after the win at Stamford Bridge.
Some might say it is surprising that Haaland, given his status and how successful he is, with records tumbling almost every week, takes notice of such comments. But Ronaldo and Messi and Harry Kane – who always recalls the suggestion he might be a “one-season wonder” – and all sporting superstars are the same. They like to use such criticism as motivation, as fuel and Haaland, clearly, is no different.
If anyone is going to halt Haaland’s extraordinary goalscoring run before the rest of the Premier League pack up and go home, it might just be Arsenal centre-back pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.
Saliba and Gabriel helped Arsenal shut out Haaland three times last season, if you include the Community Shield, with the Manchester City striker failing to register a shot on target across the two league games. Haaland has gone 244 minutes without scoring against Arsenal, the third-longest sequence of his career against a single club.
They can expect to face a rejuvenated Haaland at the Etihad on Sunday, free of the niggles that diminished his zip across the ground last season. Arsenal can take heart from how an impressive Inter team smothered him on Wednesday night.
Mikel Arteta knows his team must usurp City if they are to end a 21-year wait for a Premier League title, and he would sign up for the four points Arsenal claimed in last term’s head-to-head fixtures.
A sobering thought for Arsenal though, is that last season was the first in Haaland’s league career in which he underperformed on expected goals. That is to say, he scored fewer goals than you would expect from the quality of chances available. He still won the golden boot and City still won the league. What would happen if he hit a hot streak?
After nine goals in four league games, we might be finding out. This is how Arsenal can go about repeating their shackling of Haaland.
As noted by Thierry Henry during his work as a television pundit, Haaland favours peeling off to the back post rather than running across the face of defenders towards the near. Given his height and aerial strength this makes sense, and when he has a running jump a chance becomes football’s version of a slam dunk.
One advantage Arsenal have over other teams who face Haaland is the height of their full-backs, thanks to Arteta’s strategy of recruiting hybrid defenders who can play across the backline. Last season, Arsenal lined up at the Etihad with Ben White and Jakub Kiwior at full-back. It would have been Takehiro Tomiyasu at left-back had he been fit. This season, it will be Jurrien Timber or Riccardo Califiori on the left of Arsenal’s defence, two players with history as centre-halves.
This City attack against Arsenal last season shows the advantage of sturdier, taller full-backs. When Josko Gvardiol winds back his left foot to send the cross in, Kiwior pinches in close to Gabriel to bracket Haaland. He has no concern for leaving Bernardo Silva free on the far side. If the ball gets that far, Arsenal can shuffle across, and Gabriel Jesus is covering.
With the ball in the air, Kiwior was able to nudge Haaland, who could not make clean contact as he was sandwiched between the two Arsenal defenders. His effort spun harmlessly behind for a goal kick.
A pass map of all the assists provided for Haaland’s non-penalty league goals for Manchester City divides into two broad categories: balls played over the top of a very high or disorganised defence, when Haaland can gallop over 20 or 30 yards, or passes from deep within opposition territory when City have a team pushed back. Offer Haaland too much green grass and he will shred you with pace; retreat and he will bully you in the box.
The temptation for a defence is to keep dropping, so that they can keep Haaland in front of them and see his shirt number. However, three teams limited Haaland to two penalty box touches or fewer in the Premier League last season: Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton and Unai Emery’s Aston Villa. None of these teams take a backward step defensively. Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs kept Haaland to three penalty box touches, and Arsenal to just four at the Emirates.
Below is an example of Arsenal’s defensive shape from that game. They did not try to press City all the way from the goalkeeper Ederson, who is capable of sending Haaland through himself. They allowed City to progress beyond the halfway line, but Saliba and Gabriel did not sag back, holding their defensive line to shorten the distances to Declan Rice and Jorginho. This approach has become known as a ‘mid-block’, with Villa the league’s most notable exponents of it.
Haaland is not the type of striker who is going to receive the ball in tight spaces and dribble through a defence. With a defence pushed out, he cannot score a header. Even for passers of the quality of Kevin De Bruyne, it is hard to weight a through ball behind Arsenal’s line with David Raya waiting to sweep. This is the ‘in-between’ phase when teams feel their most comfortable against Haaland. Inevitably, City will make inroads, usually through their wingers, and the defence will have to drop into the box.
When we imagine Haaland running in behind on a counterattack, we picture a scenario of him racing clear from the halfway line. However, just as dangerous are those moments when a team loses possession in their own half and Haaland attacks a broken defence in a ‘short counterattack’. His opening goal at West Ham last month is a fine example, with the home team fanning out into their attacking shape only to lose possession in midfield. Against Haaland, there is no chance of a defensive recovery.
Bernardo Silva slots it through to Erling Haaland who makes no mistakes 🎯 pic.twitter.com/3THcMhQcm4
A worry for Arsenal is that sloppy errors on the ball in their own defensive third have been a feature of the season so far. Wolves were almost gifted a way back into the game on the opening day through giveaways by Saliba, Thomas Partey and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Ollie Watkins’ first big chance at Villa Park came from Gabriel being robbed. One of Tottenham’s few dangerous moments in the north London derby came from a loose Ben White pass, but Dominic Solanke was slow to shoot and Saliba blocked. Haaland will not be so charitable.
Arteta acknowledged after the derby victory that Arsenal “did a lot of very simple things wrong” with the ball, and they either need to move the ball more crisply at City or clear their lines. City can be at their most dangerous in the first few seconds after losing the ball.
Saliba and Gabriel are one of the few defensive pairings who can even think about putting it up to Haaland in a physical battle. When Arsenal played City in the FA Cup in 2023, Arteta experimented by having his players man-mark City all over the pitch, with Rob Holding left to mark Haaland on his own. He was substituted at half-time and replaced by Saliba, and in last season’s league meetings Arsenal adopted a more zonal set up.
Ideally, Arsenal will have the spare player with the two centre-backs against Haaland, but there will be occasions when either Saliba or Gabriel have to deal with him in a one-on-one. A highlight of last season’s victory at the Emirates for Arsenal fans was the sight of Saliba bodying Haaland to the floor when a dangerous counter-attack was developing.
However, it is probably not wise to make the contest a wrestling match. Defenders want to avoid being pinned by a physical centre-forward such as Haaland, unable to see the ball. Instead, they will either look to give themselves a yard by keeping an arm in his back, or step in front to either play offside or force a change in his position.