Erling Haaland achieves rare L’Equipe rating after demolishing Man Utd

Pep Guardiola reviews Man City's win v Man Utd

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Manchester City forward Erling Haaland has been given a perfect score of 10 by French newspaper L’Equipe, who are notoriously harsh with their player ratings, after completing a wonderful hat-trick against Manchester United on Sunday. Haaland was at his brilliant best at the Etihad Stadium and helped put United to the sword with three goals in a memorable 6-3 win over City’s bitter rivals, with Phil Foden also chipping in with a hat-trick of his own to put the icing on the cake.

Haaland’s fruitful performance against United saw his tally of Premier League goals rise to 14 after just eight appearances for City, who brought him to England from Borussia Dortmund over the summer. He was rewarded for his impressive showing with a perfect score from L’Equipe to become only the 14th player in history to receive a rating of 10, according to The Athletic.

The most recent player to have been given a perfect score before Haaland was Nantes goalkeeper Alban Lafont after inspiring his side to victory over Paris Saint-Germain towards the end of last season. Lionel Messi, meanwhile, is the only man to have been awarded a rating of 10 on two occasions after his performances against Arsenal in 2010 and Bayer Leverkusen two years later.

The likes of Robert Lewandowski, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe have also previously received perfect scores from L’Equipe, who are known for not holding back in their post-match assessments of high-profile fixtures. Editor-in-chief Jean-Philippe Leclair explained last year that their ratings are solely decided upon by the writers at the stadium, who he feels are best-placed to comment on the performances of individual players rather than the journalists back at the office.

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“We think that the writers and reporters at the stadium have got the best view to rate the players, so it is only them,” Leclair told OTB.

“Sometimes we feel a rating is too much or, you know, ‘are you sure you want to give him a two?’, but it is their decision. Sometimes it is hard, because we are waiting for the ratings back at the office.

“It is because they are debating like hell. ‘Oh, he should get a seven.’ ‘No, that’s too much!’ It is part of the fun and good to have controversy like this.”

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Haaland can maintain his prolific form over the course of the Premier League season, with City well-placed to retain their domestic title if the Norwegian striker keeps on scoring for fun. His internal desire to succeed was highlighted as a main factor in shaping his impressive start to the campaign by Pep Guardiola, who waxed lyrical over Haaland’s performance after the final whistle against United.

“The numbers speak for himself,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “He has done this before here. It is not our way. Always we try to help him in our environment. We have this incredible sense that he always looks starving and is so competitive.

“The numbers are scary, honestly. He sees 10 players running without the ball with effort for each other so he wants to do it. They visualise it, they see it. It’s why we have success in the last few years. Behind it is effort and desire to do it.”

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