Premier League reaction: Manchester City beat Bournemouth to close the gap on leaders Arsenal to six points
Erling Haaland scores twice to take his league tally to 13 for the season after 10 games - more than twice as many as any other player
Man City manager Guardiola praises Haaland, calling him the 'sweetest and kindest person' and that his numbers are 'outstanding'
The stats: Burnley's Maxime Esteve, with two own goals, is Man City's second highest scorer
Coming up later: Champions League news conferences with Thomas Frank and Arne Slot
Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say - Is Haaland the best striker in the world?
Your views: Zac says he'd have Haaland at Arsenal over Kane and Mbappe
Premier League
Craig Nelson
BBC Sport reporter
Right, let's do a robot-like pivot now to the title race, a la Peter Crouch/Erling Haaland/Smithy from Gavin & Stacey...
The story of Peter Crouch's famous 'robot' celebration.
Peter Crouch shared how the ‘robot’ celebration came about on That Peter Crouch Podcast in 2018.
Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say
Beyond doubt, he is the best. He demands even more of himself than his manager, his team-mates, or his supporters dare to ask. I'm not a City fan, but it is quite astonishing just how many times he creates space for himself when being marked by two players.
Peter
I'm assuming we are still talking Erling Haaland here Peter, and not your namesake Peter Crouch?
Image source, Getty ImagesErling Haaland's scary statistics this season have left many in awe of the 25-year-old's prowess in front of goal.
However, it was his robot dance to mark Sunday's opener in the win against Bournemouth that sparked the day's big talking point.
It was a flashback to the iconic celebration of towering former Liverpool and England forward Peter Crouch.
"Guess I couldn't hide it any longer…," said Haaland on social media afterwards, while Crouch joked: "I walked so they could run."
Craig Nelson
BBC Sport reporter
Right, before we move on to the wider title race, we just have to broach one more talking point that requires a similarly nostalgic reminder of the recent past.
Erling Haaland and the robot celebration, who he has copied from...?
Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say
In my lifetime, best 'centre forwards' have been Henry, David Villa, Totti and Rooney. Out and out strikers - Suarez, Lewandowski, Batistuta, Ibrahimovic and Benzema all incredible - but original Ronaldo another class entirely.
Gary
Craig Nelson
BBC Sport reporter
Talking about Erling Haaland being a model pro, I was lucky enough to attend an open training session Manchester City held in pre-season.
Part of the session involved players doing gym exercises.
They all seemed to struggle with one in particular - bouncing a medicine ball.
The aim was to get it to bounce up to chest height and it looked to sap every ounce of energy, just to do a couple.
Not for Erling though, who was bouncing the heavy ball like it was one you might find in a beach shop, making it go higher and faster than any of his team-mates.
All the while, he had this smile on his face that reminded me of Ivan Drago from the film Rocky IV...
Maybe not a reference for younger readers, but Google it kids, you won't be disappointed.
Image source, Getty ImagesClick 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say
Kane is great but Haaland is better. He is doing it in a much more difficult league and is 7 years younger, his best days could still be ahead of him. Don't forget Haaland dominated the Bundesliga as a 20 year old.
Dan
Man City 3-1 Bournemouth
Image source, Getty ImagesIt's not just for Manchester City that Erling Haaland is in fine form.
That form has continued over to his country, Norway.
His double against Bournemouth has taken his total goals for club and country in 2025-26 to 26 in 16 appearances.
We're in November.
Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say
One week Big Erl is a league 2 player, next he is best in the world. Hard to keep up.
Niall
Man City 3-1 Bournemouth
Image source, Getty ImagesFormer England goalkeeper Paul Robinson said on BBC Radio 5 Live: "You run out of superlatives. People may criticise [Erling Haaland], saying that he doesn't involve himself in play enough.
"But he scores a ridiculous amount of goals and will go on to break all kinds of records - if he stays in the Premier League."
Ex-City goalkeeper Shay Given added: "Erling Haaland has got aspirations of being the best striker in Premier League history, the best player in Norwegian history, and probably the best player in the world.
"The stuff he does off the pitch, he is the ultimate professional."
Image source, Getty ImagesWe know what the opposition think about Erling Haaland, but what about his team-mates.
Speaking after Manchester City's victory over Brentford in October, midfielder Nico Gonzalez described Haaland as "the best striker in the world".
He's probably got a point, you know...
"Sometimes I have tried to defend against him [in training] but he's unstoppable - so strong and so fast," Gonzalez told BBC Radio Manchester.
"It's incredible. When you defend against it you realise it. I didn't realise he was that hard to defend before. I don't think it's the only way he can score like this - he can score in every way possible.
"He's the best striker in the world and we are so happy to have him here."
Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say
Is Haaland the best striker in the world today? Yes, with Kane a close second. Is Haaland the best striker ever? No, that still belongs to Ronaldo Nazario [R9].
David
Image source, Getty ImagesMan City 3-1 Bournemouth
Image source, Getty ImagesEven if Manchester City have become over-reliant on Erling Haaland, understanding the threat and stopping it are two very different things.
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola was the latest Premier League manager to try - and fail - on Sunday.
“I think in the first half [Erling] Haaland made a difference," he told Sky Sports. "The way we want to play, we want to press them, and the timing between our two centre-backs wasn’t there at times.
"He [Haaland] is just big. His finishing level [is high], and now in great form, he can punish you.”
Click 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say
I find it funny that City, a team who pretty much played without a striker between 2019 and 2022, are now relying on their striker to score every single goal. Who said Pep can't adapt?
Steven
According to Opta, if Erling Haaland carries on at the rate he is going, he will smash the record for proportion of a team's goals scored by one player in a Premier League season.
The current holder of the "put the team on your back" award is James Beattie, who scored 23 of Southampton's 43 goals (53.5%) in the 2002-03 season.
Percentage of teams goals scored:
*season still in play
Image source, Getty ImagesClick 'Get Involved' at the top of this page to have your say
Haaland is a close second to Harry Kane. I don't see Haaland still performing at this high level in 10 years time when he's the age Kane is now.
Jay
Image source, Getty ImagesAnother question might be how you best judge a centre forward and a striker.
Maybe a centre-forward's best metric is goal involvements - goals and assists - while a striker should be judged purely on goals?
We're probably getting a bit ahead of ourselves but here's a reminder of the current all-time Premier League top scorers list.
Could Erling Haaland make his way among this lot sooner rather than later?
Top 10 Premier League scorers of all time:
Craig Nelson
BBC Sport reporter
You know, we have a good idea at the start of every day what we would like to talk about in this page, but almost always it is you, the readers, who then take it in one direction or another.
It feels like Tim is taking us down a path here that I wasn't expecting but may be quite interesting:
There is a subtle difference there, isn't there?
Thumbs up if you agree with Tim, thumbs down if you don't.
And please expand by giving us some of your shouts as to the best strikers in history, and the best centre forwards.
| Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal Difference | Points | Form, Last 6 games, Oldest first |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 3 | 15 | 25 |
| |
| 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 8 | 12 | 19 |
| |
| 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 14 | 4 | 18 |
| |
| 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 14 | 3 | 18 |
| |
| 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 17 |
| |
| 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 18 | 11 | 7 | 17 |
| |
| 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 17 |
| |
| 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 17 | 16 | 1 | 17 |
| |
| 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 16 |
| |
| 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 15 |
| |
| 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 10 | -1 | 15 |
| |
| 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 16 | -2 | 13 |
| |
| 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 11 | -1 | 12 |
| |
| 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 14 | -2 | 11 |
| |
| 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 12 | -3 | 11 |
| |
| 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 17 | -8 | 11 |
| |
| 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 19 | -7 | 10 |
| |
| 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 21 | -11 | 7 |
| |
| 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 19 | -12 | 6 |
| |
| 10 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 22 | -15 | 2 |
|
