LONDON – Manchester City striker Erling Haaland tied the record for the most goals in a 38-game Premier League season after moving his tally to 32 with an early double against Leicester.
Haaland is now level with Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah, who scored 32 goals in the 2017-18 season.
City still has eight more games to play in the league and Haaland is on course to break the record for a 42-game campaign, which stands at 34 goals and is jointly held by Andy Cole (at Newcastle in the 1993-94 season) and Alan Shearer (at Blackburn in ’94-95).
Haaland scored in the 13th and 25th minutes against Leicester at Etihad Stadium before getting substituted at half-time. He has 47 goals in all competitions in his first season in English soccer.
City was leading Leicester 3-0 at half-time and won the match 3-1, AP reported.
“Like I said lately, it is win, win and win,” said Guardiola, whose side has now won 10 consecutive games in all competitions.
“They have had an incredible run this season and I don’t think they are going to drop many points, so what we have to do is be there.
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur blew a gilt-edged chance to rekindle their hopes of finishing in the Premier League’s top four when relegation battlers Bournemouth snatched a last-gasp 3-2 away victory over them.
Substitute Dango Ouattara’s superb finish in the fifth minute of stoppage time secured a vital three points for Bournemouth whose fans celebrated wildly as their side took another step towards top-flight survival, Reuters reported.
For the hosts, their chances of playing in the Champions League next season look bleak after a 10th defeat of the season.
Third-placed Newcastle United’s lunchtime defeat at Aston Villa had opened the door for Tottenham and they duly went ahead in the 14th minute when Son Heung-min fired them into the lead.
But Tottenham lost their way and a mistake at the back by Pedro Porro was punished as Matias Vina equalised for Bournemouth in the 38th minute.
Bournemouth went ahead six minutes after the break when Dominic Solanke dinked a close-range finish past Hugo Lloris.
Tottenham, who could have gone above fourth-placed Manchester United for 24 hours at least with a win, raised their intensity level and Arnaut Danjuma’s left-footed goalin the 88th minute set up a frantic finale.
With the hosts searching for a winner Richarlison was inches away from giving Tottenham the lead but Bournemouth then broke forward and the ball reached Ouattara who cut in from the left before arrowing a right-foot finish beyond Lloris.
Tottenham remained in fifth place with 53 points from 31 games, three behind Manchester United and Newcastle United who has played 29 and 30 games respectively. Spurs will play at Newcastle next week and also still have to face Manchester United later this month.
Bournemouth’s survival prospects are now looking much rosier as they have 33 points, six more than third-from-bottom Nottingham Forest.
“It is a really tough day because we didn’t achieve what we wanted,” Tottenham’s interim manager Cristian Stellini said. “If Richarlison scores that opportunity we are probably here to enjoy a moment. But now we do not enjoy because we allowed them to score three goals.”
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