Erling Haaland celebrates his hat-trick (Image: Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff)

Pep Guardiola hailed Erling Haaland as indispensable after the brilliant Norwegian scored another hat-trick in Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Wolves.

Haaland clinched his fourth treble of the season, taking his tally to an impressive 31 goals in 26 appearances in all competitions. The Premier League champions have reacted harshly to their manager’s complaints.

Guardiola has lamented his side’s recent performance and Haaland’s trebles were a perfect way to answer claims that City have become a worse team, at least in style, since the striker’s arrival.

“If he scores, I don’t know how many hat-tricks and goals he scores, he’s the solution in our team and if he doesn’t score, he’s a problem in our team,” Guardiola said.

“It’s a gray picture of something like that. We know the quality of it, we know ourselves. He’s not a player to drop. We can’t play false nines with him, we have to adapt to him and I think we’re pretty doing well.

Guardiola was dissatisfied with City’s recent loss of luster, adding: “Today we improved, but it was only today, we’ll see what happens in the next few games.”

“People will see goals from Erling, assists from Kevin [De Bruyne] and the actions of Riyadh [Mahrez] but there are still things that can be improved.’