Manchester City are still in the early weeks of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign.
However, their first couple of weeks in the new season have been rather positive ones as Pep Guardiola’s side have won both of their two opening matches.
After beating Chelsea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, City followed that up by picking up a 4-1 victory over Ipswich Town at the Etihad Stadium.
Now though, a pundit has made an interesting claim about one particular City player who has already had a big impact on the season for the Blues.
Darren Bent backs Erling Haaland to get even better
Featuring in a recent edition of The Kelly and Wrighty Show by Premier League Productions (via Optus Sport), Darren Bent had this to say after seeing Erling Haaland score his first hat-trick of the season in City’s win over Ipswich.
He said: “I mean he started off this season incredibly well. He looks hungry, looks fired up, he looks in great nick.
“I know he always looks in good shape for whatever reason, his sharpness and his finishing because maybe last season at times, because he set such high standards in his first season, there were chances he’d miss or the runs he’d make and you’d go that’s not quite like him.
“It’s like he’s put all that to bed or he’s listened to all the noise and he’s come back and even the hat-trick, the last one he just knows where the goal is. just turns, bang, it’s a goal.
“It’s a scary thought for the Premier League I think for this season because we’ve seen him be incredible that first season, I think he can go better than that.
“He got 27 last season and people would say that by his standards his all-round game wasn’t what we saw in the first season.
“The way he’s come back this season with [Kevin] De Bruyne looks like he’s fit, bringing [Ilkay] Gundogan back as well, you start adding these pieces in and around it, Jeremy Doku will get better this season as well, I think he can go better than that.”
Haaland could be City’s star player this season
Bent isn’t the only former striker to share his astonishment at what the Norwegian has been doing on the pitch recently as Troy Deeney dubbed Haaland a “monster” after seeing him in action against Ipswich.
Finding the back of the net 36 times in 35 league games across his debut season at the Manchester club, the 24-year-old followed that up by scoring 27 in 31 last term as Bent mentioned.
Having now bagged four goals and his tenth City hat-trick in his first two matches of the new campaign, it’s easy to see why Bent has been so impressed by what he’s seen from the centre-forward over the past couple of weeks and why he thinks he could have a special season this time around.