Time for Erling Haaland to 'stay humble': Man City need star striker to shake off 'big-game bottler' tag to have any hope of beating Arsenal in Carabao Cup final

It is not just a lack of goals or assists at Wembley that is a concern ahead of Sunday's final. He has had only nine shots in his six appearances, with just three shots on target and one shot against the woodwork. Haaland’s first trip to Wembley came in the 2023 FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United and despite the massive gap in quality he was unable to get in on the act as Riyad Mahrez scored all the goals in the 3-0 win.

The final against Manchester United the next month was much closer run but Haaland had a quiet game and Ilkay Gundogan grabbed the headlines instead. He tasted defeat at Wembley for the first time in the 2023 Community Shield, being taken off during the 1-1 draw and playing no part in the penalty shootout which the Gunners won.

He was injured for the FA Cup semi-final in 2024 against Chelsea and then had another quiet display in the final as United avenged their defeat from the previous year and caused an upset. Haaland did at least find the net in the Community Shield against United in his next game but it was only in the penalty shootout.

He was injured for last season's semi-final against Nottingham Forest but returned in time for the final against Crystal Palace.

But that was arguably his biggest disappointment yet, as City succumbed to the biggest upset in an FA Cup final since losing to Wigan in 2013. And worst of all, Haaland shied away from taking a penalty, with Omar Marmoush stepping up and seeing his shot saved by Dean Henderson.

Wayne Rooney did not hold back on his criticism of the Norwegian after what he viewed as an unforgivable dereliction of duty. "Erling Haaland is a world class forward but when we are talking about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, there is no way they are giving that ball away," he said.

"That is what separates these two players from Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe and all these other players. They are selfish and they want to score every game. When Haaland misses chances, I think you can see that it gets to him and that it does affect him. Maybe the thought of taking a penalty at Wembley might have been too much for him. You never know, he is a human being."

Haaland has since admitted: "I shouldn’t have given it to a new player. So all the responsibility is on me. I put him in this situation. I had a good feeling about him. But I should have taken it myself."

But it is not just under the Wembley arch where Haaland has a strange habit of losing his usual ruthless goalscoring nerve. He has failed to score in all eight of the finals he has played in for City, also blanking in the 2022 Community Shield in Leicester, the 2023 Champions League final in Istanbul and the Super Cup in Greece that same year.

It has led to him having the unwanted title of a big-game bottler although his record in crunch games in the Premier League is not nearly as bad as some make out.

In 35 matches against the ‘Big Six’ he has 24 goals and 10 assists. It is just shy of a goal contribution per game, while on goals alone it works out as a strike rate of 69 percent.

It only looks bad set against Haaland’s overall record for City, where he has a strike rate of 82%. Not many City fans will begrudge his record against United, for example, having notched eight goals and three assists in his seven league games against City’s biggest rivals. Against Arsenal his record reads five goals and two assists in seven games.

He has often struggled against Liverpool but this season he scored in both fixtures and sparked the recent frantic comeback with an assist for Bernardo Silva, leaving him with three goals and an assist in six games.

Against Chelsea it is four goals and two assists while he has an identical record in his matches against Tottenham, including netting twice in the make-or-break match in May 2024.

Haaland’s record against Real Madrid in the Champions League, on paper, is not so bad either, with four goals in his eight matches although with the important caveat that he has only been on the winning side twice and only once when he found the net.

That was in the League Stage game in December which has been completely overshadowed by last week’s 5-1 defeat on aggregate in the last-16, City’s third consecutive elimination at the hands of the 15 times winners.

In 14 Champions League knockout games he has 11 goals although his five-goal salvo against RB Leipzig in the last 16 in 2023 is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Guardiola has always warned against making too much of any striker’s goal droughts, particularly when it comes to Haaland.

"With top scorers or strikers who score a lot of goals, don't criticise because he will shut your mouth, that's for sure," Guardiola said in 2024. "Sooner or later, he is there. Definitely, if I have to choose one [player to score], I choose this one.”

Hitting on a similar theme, Sergio Aguero said last month: "The thing is, Haaland has spoiled everyone. Every season he scores more and more goals, so when he doesn't score in a couple of games, then he gets questioned."

It is also worth remembering what the man himself said on the eve of the 2023 Champions League final when he was asked about his limp end to the season. For him, it is all about perspective. "You can think of it as one goal in seven games," Haaland said with a cheeky grin. "Or 52 goals in 52 games and eight assists, I think."

But it is clear that if Arsenal are lifting the Carabao Cup at Wembley come Sunday evening and Haaland is still on zero goals after his seventh game at the home of English football, then his reputation as a big-game bottler will be on everyone's lips.

As he told Arsenal two years ago, it is time for Haaland to stay humble and end that reputation once and for all and finally add Wembley to the many, many stadiums he has conquered.

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