Erling Haaland has admitted that Manchester City remain in a “rebuilding phase” and currently lag behind Premier League champions Arsenal, even as the striker’s side eased past Coventry City in their latest outing.
Speaking to Viaplay, Haaland was candid in his assessment of where Pep Guardiola’s former side stand compared to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who enter the season as the reigning champions after ending City’s long grip on the title.
The 25-year-old pointed to the continuity Arteta has built at the Emirates as the key difference between the two clubs at this stage of the campaign.
“Arsenal have played together for a long time and have built this up over a longer period, a bit like City had when I first joined,” Haaland said, according to Metro Sport
A new era for Manchester City under Maresca
Manchester City are adjusting to life under new head coach Enzo Maresca following Guardiola’s departure at the end of last season after a decade in charge.
The Italian, who has previously worked at the Etihad both as an academy coach and as one of Guardiola’s assistants during the club’s treble-winning campaign, returned to Manchester this summer on a three-year deal.
The managerial change has coincided with a busy summer of squad turnover, something Haaland acknowledged has left City in a period of transition rather than the settled, battle-tested unit Arsenal now boast.
Despite the upheaval, Haaland struck an optimistic tone about the business City have done in the transfer market to support the new manager’s rebuild.
“We’re still in a kind of rebuilding phase, but the transfer window has been fantastic, I have to say,” Haaland said.
Arsenal set the standard after ending City’s dominance
Arsenal’s status as the team to beat has been years in the making. Arteta has kept the core of his squad together across multiple transfer windows, allowing an already talented group to mature into genuine title winners.
That stability, built through patient recruitment and a settled dressing room, is precisely the kind of foundation City enjoyed during their most dominant years under Guardiola — and which Haaland believes his current side must now rebuild from something closer to scratch.
Haaland’s own City career began in the summer of 2022, when the club were already an established force, and he was quick to draw the parallel between that City side and Arsenal’s current group.
His remarks suggest a level of respect for what Arteta has constructed at the Emirates, even as City look to reassert themselves under Maresca.
Meanwhile, the win over Coventry offered an early sign that the new-look squad is capable of getting the job done, even while pieces are still being fitted together under an unfamiliar coaching setup.
Haaland, City’s talisman and one of the most prolific forwards in Europe, remains central to those hopes regardless of who is patrolling the touchline.
What comes next for City under Maresca
Maresca’s task now is to translate a productive transfer window into on-field cohesion quickly enough to keep pace with an Arsenal side that shows no signs of slowing down.
Haaland’s honesty about the gap between the two clubs will not sit comfortably with supporters used to years of dominance, but it also reflects the scale of the challenge facing the Italian as he begins life as City’s head coach.
