Haaland reaches 20 as Man City crush Southampton

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Erling Haaland scored his 20th goal of the season as Manchester City climbed to the top of the Premier League with a 4-0 demolition of Southampton at the Etihad.

Joao Cancelo, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez were also in the running for the English champions, who trail top-flight Arsenal by two points.

City travel to Liverpool next weekend for what has become the Premier League's showpiece clash of recent seasons.

But in this form, Pep Guardiola's men look unstoppable with Haaland added to a squad that have already won four titles in the past five seasons.

After some slip-ups at the start of the season, City are starting to take off on a six-game winning streak and have now scored 31 goals in seven games at the Etihad this season.

The surprise was that for once Haaland was not leading the charge as the 22-year-old's hat-trick streak in Premier League home games ended at three.

Haaland should have opened the scoring when he shook the inside post of Foden's through ball early on, but it only seemed a matter of time before the floodgates opened.

Cancelo was retained at left-back despite Kyle Walker's absence at right-back and the Portuguese produced a finish Haaland would have been proud of as he marauded forward and fired into the corner less than 20 minutes.

Foden scored his first hat-trick as City tore Manchester United to shreds last weekend and continued their fine form in front of goal with a delicious chip over Gavin Bazunu.

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl could have taken charge of the Saints for the last time with reports this week that the Austrian is set to be sacked.

After a brilliant start to the campaign, Southampton have lost their last four games and failed to respond to City's wave of attacks after the break.

Guardiola had harsh words for Mahrez over his fitness in the early weeks of the season, but there were sparks from Algeria's best as he stole home on Rodri's cross to kill the encounter as a contest.

All eyes then turned to Haaland's quest to continue his incredible scoring streak.

Twice the former Borussia Dortmund striker has been guilty of missing out on chances he would normally have buried as he failed to connect with De Bruyne's cross at the end of his tether bearing and then failed to beat Bazunu one-on-one.

However, Haaland finally scored for the 10th consecutive club game when he sent home a low cross from the excellent Cancelo.