The Norwegian forward has started the 2023/24 campaign with seven goals in his first eight appearances, and currently leads the way in the Premier League scoring charts.
That follows a remarkable debut season at City, where he broke numerous records en route to grabbing 52 goals in 53 matches in all competitions.
Unsurprisingly, plenty of individual recognition followed with Haaland named FWA Footballer of the Year, PFA Player of the Year and UEFA Men’s Player of the Year for 2022/23.
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And Guardiola revealed that, following a shortened pre-season period after City secured the Treble, Haaland is gradually getting back to his best.
Indeed, the boss believes the forward’s influence on the game is usually an indication of how the team is performing as a collective.
“Every week is much better than the first week,” the boss said of our number nine.
“He’s an important and tall figure, so getting the rhythm is always more difficult without pre-season because we went to Japan and Korea and didn’t have much time to train.
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“But every week he’s better and he’s there. He’s an incredible threat. I sense when the team is playing quite good, is how many chances Erling has had.
“If he’s not involved in chances, then something is wrong in our process and our dynamic.
“But if we create a lot of chances and the ball is there that’s because we’re doing really good things and we need to continue.
“He’s always there and scoring a lot of goals, in the past and present and it’ll happen in the future.”
Guardiola added that Haaland’s fitness levels are relatively close to the early stages of last season.
The Norwegian had grabbed nine goals in his first five Premier League matches in 2022/23, including a hat-trick against Saturday’s opponents.
And for the boss, gradually gaining sharpness is something that comes naturally with a busy fixture schedule.
“In pre-season I can’t expect him to be fully fit, that’s why it’s pre-season to get as many number of training sessions,” he said of the Norwegian’s levels.
“Normally the new players, they come and are fully fit earlier. When you don’t play [at the end of] the last season, you start the pre-season earlier, so you’re fit earlier.
“When you’ve won the Treble maybe you wait a little bit longer. It’s a question of time. Most important in that period is not to get injured but unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid a few of them.
“As much as you have training sessions and games you’ll be ready, it’s just a question of time.”
