Published: 14:30, 4 November 2025 | Updated: 14:30, 4 November 2025

Erling Haaland claimed that VAR has given him an advantage against defenders as the Manchester City striker looks on course to break his own goalscoring record this season.

The Norwegian has 26 goals in 16 games for club and country so far, having tallied 56 during his best ever campaign when City lifted the Treble.

Pep Guardiola has suggested that he saw a different Haaland report for pre-season training in the summer and the 25-year-old, now part of City’s leadership team, appears set to scale new heights.

Haaland’s attention to detail in attempting to maximise his ability is so pronounced that he quickly reeled off that he’d only been offside on 18 occasions through his Premier League career – and believes VAR is helping him, the technology removing any prospect of erroneous calls in tight situations for somebody who usually stays the right side of the line.

‘It’s not the first season when I was barely offside,’ he said before facing former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. ‘Since I came to...