Pep Guardiola says Erling Haaland is feeling better than at any other time since he joined City.

The Norwegian striker, with 65 goals in 68 games for City so far, already has 13 goals this season.

But the City boss says that a niggling injury present since he arrived at the Club, has now cleared up – and that could be bad news for the rest of the Premier League.

“He’s so important for us,” said Guardiola.

“He feels really fit now and he had niggles in the adductor in the past, especially when he came from Dortmund.

“Now he’s completely the opposite; he feels free of problems.

“Today I saw him training with incredible energy.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in, March, April, and May but we want to try to win games so that in March, April, and May, we will be contenders in the competitions we are playing in.

“Then we’ll see if he’s tired and if he is, we will give him a rest.

“But now, I sense he’s feeling good and for us, having him on the pitch gives us confidence because he’s an incredible threat to opponents. 

“In the beginning of this campaign, he had trouble because he just had three weeks off and he played a lot of minutes and won a lot of titles last season.

“He’s already scored a lot of goals, and in a lot of games he had chances to score more.

“He’s so incredible and special and a lovely player which is why we use him a lot.”

The City boss also responded to Roy Keane’s comments on Sky Sports after the 3-0 win over Manchester United.

As pictures were shown live of Guardiola discussing a missed header opportunity with Haaland, the former United man suggested the City boss should have those sort of chats in the dressing room.

Guardiola, however, says it is something he has always done and will continue to do.

“I respect a lot, Roy Keane,” said Pep.

“Sometimes after we finish the game, I go inside and sometimes I stay there, sometimes I talk.

“When I find a player, we have a chat about the game.

“I know the cameras are everywhere and I could tell him inside.

“At that moment [against United], I was outside with our fans, and I like to be with them, especially away, for the fans it was an important game against United.

“We talked about the goal he scored and the chance in the last minute, and the Onana action where he could do better, his header needed to be stronger - just put the ball in the net with more power or whatever.

“It happened with Erling at Burnley. I can avoid it, honestly.

“Yes maybe Roy’s right. But it happened. I don’t need to do something for the people.

“Sometimes I go inside, sometimes I say hi to the referee, sometimes I don’t.

“It’s what I feel in the moment, I’m not thinking after the game I’m going to go to the players and do something spectacular for the people. I’m old enough already!  

“Especially when you win a game, and you talk about what happened in the game.

“I’ve done it all my career; I did it at Bayern Munich with Kimmich sometimes or at Barcelona.

“At Barcelona, we didn’t go much to the referee, it was not a tradition for all the managers after the game to go on the pitch.

“Now it sometimes is and sometimes isn’t. It depends on the moments; sometimes you react in that way, but not to make people think how special we are.

“It is far away from that.”