Pep Guardiola reveals talks with Erling Haaland after '50 million'-goal striker powers Man City to gritty win at Brentford

With only ten minutes on the clock, Haaland took a pass from Josko Gvardiol in stride and managed to completely outmuscle Bees defender Sepp van den Berg, powering his way into the penalty area and firing beyond goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher for what proved to be the only goal of a close game in west London.

In a post-match press conference, GOAL asked Guardiola what his instructions even are for Haaland anymore given his near-guarantee of goals. 

"Always to try play better and better, to try and play more balls to him to score goals," he replied. "Phil [Foden] is the same. In the first half, there was two or three decisions that was not in the final third perfect, but his commitment was really good. Even defensively. We talked after Monaco, that was really good.

"Last season, I don’t know if we were in the position we are in right now, we’re a little bit away from everything. But listen, it’s just seven games in the Premier League. From my experience, it never ends. I would say three weeks ago, Liverpool had already won the Premier League, and now apparently not. So this is so long. The important thing is we see the team [getting] better and better. Liverpool is an incredible team, like Arsenal and Chelsea and Tottenham. Bournemouth is there, Brighton is. They’re very good teams. The question is [how to] improve, improve, improve. Winning helps to improve better, but the way we play, the way we defend, the way we do things to help us in the end, to make it close to try to fight like always, except last season."

Guardiola also expressed his desire to continue developing Haaland as an all-round striker and not only someone that can score ‘50 million goals’. He added: "I said one month ago he is the best and that year we won the Treble, I don’t know how many goals he scored - maybe 50 million goals.

"But now he signed a contract for many years - we have to find him more, but he is more involved in the game, not just in the finishing, he is more on the ball and he work a lot his ethic, pressing and I am really pleased and I hope this week with Norway he can score more and come back fit for the Everton game."

Haaland already has nine goals this Premier League campaign alone, three more than the closest challenger - Antoine Semenyo of Bournemouth - in the race for the Golden Boot. The only match he has not scored in during 2025-26 was City’s 2-0 defeat at home to Tottenham on the second weekend of the season.

Only four players have won the Premier League Golden Boot three times or more. Thierry Henry and Mohamed Salah have picked it up four times apiece, while Alan Shearer and Harry Kane have taken it home three times each. Haaland, victorious in 2022-23 and 2023-24, is looking to join an exclusive club and regain the top-scorer gong from Salah, who was triumphant for 2024-25. The Norwegian has also spoken of his wish to win the European Golden Shoe, awarded to the top scorer across the entire continent, with Kane, now of Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe seen as his closest challengers on that front.

Haaland will now join up with the Norway international team for their October fixtures, including a pivotal World Cup qualifier against Israel, with the Scandinavian nation on the verge of reaching their first major men’s tournament since Euro 2000. They will, however, have to soldier on without captain Martin Odegaard, who sustained a knee injury during Arsenal’s win against West Ham on Saturday.