Bernardo Silva predicts ridiculous Erling Haaland goalscoring record by Christmas

While Manchester City fans would have had high hopes for Erling Haaland to kick-start his career at the club by bagging a handful of goals, a return of nine goals through five games would have been dreamland stuff for most.

But after his second consecutive hat-trick on Wednesday evening in a 6-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest, that's the mark the Norwegian hit. 

The 22-year-old started life at Manchester City with a cloud of critics hanging over his head.

There had been plenty of whispers around his move from Borussia Dortmund suggesting that he may not fit in to Pep Guardiola’s City squad. 

However, his early season performances have quickly put those whispers to rest, and Erling Haaland is fast becoming the most lethal attacking player in the Premier League.

Speaking this week after Manchester City’s thumping win over Forest, midfielder Bernardo Silva revealed his staggering expectations for Haaland’s debut season. 

“I hope 50 or 60 (goals scored) - by Christmas!” Silva stated tongue in cheek. 

“He's playing well, but it doesn't matter who scores.

"If the strikers score, it's always nice for the team, because it's good for the confidence and helps them go again.

“If I could choose, then only strikers would score, because it's nice to have them confident and aggressive, it's where we need them, so as many goals as possible. Erling (Haaland) is so good, so quick, so strong."

Bernardo Silva continued, “His hunger for goals, he always wants more and to have a striker like him in our team is just great.

"Especially in the last two games he was unbelievable and I hope he continues in this way.

“I think in the games he's even better, in terms of when he gets pressure he gets better and deals with it very well.

"You can see in his face the way he wants to score, how aggressive he is inside the box and that's great to have in the box.”

Bernardo Silva will hope that Erling Haaland’s red-hot start to life in the Premier League continues this weekend as the Blues travel down to Villa Park to face off against an Aston Villa side who find themselves in the relegation zone after five games played. 

A win for the Etihad club would see them extend their unbeaten streak at the beginning of the campaign to six straight in Premier League play.