Erling Haaland relieved to put right something ‘irritating me for a long time’ with goal at Chelsea

Erling Haaland has admitted that he was desperate to get the better of Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez after being denied by the Spaniard last season.

Manchester City’s prolific Norwegian striker made an effort on Sanchez’s goal as he entered the box in the 4-4 draw last November, only to be denied by an excellent reaction save down to the goalkeeper’s left.

This time Haaland got into much closer quarters before attempting his finish, however, dinking past Sanchez to fire City into the lead.

Haaland explained to Sky Sports after the game: “I don’t know if you remember last year, but he had a great save on me, Sanchez, and you can see that he stays a lot on the line.

“So that’s why I took a couple of extra touches that means [Sanchez] rushing out, and then I knew exactly what to do. I think it was a really good goal.

“I remember from last year and it’s been irritating me for a long time. It was a perfect goal.”

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City looked comfortable defending their lead for much of the rest of the game, with the exception of pair of efforts from Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson: the young buck turned out to be offside after he thought he had equalised just before half time, and put a second-half bicycle kick straight at Ederson after getting free in behind the City defence inside the six-yard box.

That left the result in little doubt going into the final minutes of the game, but Mateo Kovacic made sure of it nonetheless with a swerving effort from outside the box that Sanchez really should have kept out having succeeded in getting a hand to it.

City held off a respectable Arsenal challenge again to claim their fourth consecutive Premier League title last season, beating the Gunners into first place by just two points.

Pep Guardiola’s longer-term future at the club currently remains uncertain as he begins the final season of his current contract. The Catalan has not yet made a decision one way or the other as to whether or not he will pen a new deal at the Etihad Stadium.

City are meanwhile battling against FFP allegations off the pitch that could lead to a points deduction if the Premier League’s case against them on up to 115 charges proves successful.

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