It won’t be long before the Premier League has a new champion, and it’s very likely to be the same regular champions of recent years: Manchester City.
On the other hand, this regular champion has had an unusual season. And it did so because it had a footballer with a post-human ability to score goals ahead of everyone else: Erling Haaland.
The professional and the obsession with winning
The Norwegian, we are informed by his coach and teammates, works more hours a day than any of his teammates. He has a special diet. He has people to tend to each of his Nordic god muscles. He does special rehabilitation. ‘’He sleeps on ice’’, says Grealish, who prefers to sleep with his head on the bar every now and then after a bender with friends. Haaland doesn’t.
Erling Haaland is a professional, a sort of Cristiano Ronaldo upgraded to the 2020s (Haaland is by no means a Messi fan, quite the contrary). Same obsession with winning. Same unquenchable desire to always be better and better and better, the best. Haaland breaks records with the ease with which we ordinary people walk down the street.
Northern god addiction
So then, can Manchester City still be stopped? Can it? How? When? Where?
The truth is that Guardiola’s team (who has finally changed the old tiki-taka style with which he conquered the world at Barcelona and but failed at Bayern) is currently dependent on Erling. If anything happens to the Norwegian, if he gets nervous (he’s still so young…), if he sprains an ankle…
Haaland’s goals and solar eclipses
The nightmare for City exists, and it has a face: an end to the season without Haaland. That could make all fall apart. And in the Champions League and the Premier League, where Arsenal are waiting for errors. And in fairness Arsenal dominated the season until the blonde ‘beast’ came to life with two-three goals per match.
In short, and understandably, ManCity’s matches still present a good opportunity for punters. Plus, you can bet on Haaland to score match by match. There are fewer eclipses of the sun in a century than matches in a season when Erling doesn’t score. It’s not a metaphor. It’s the reality.
