Manchester City's biggest star is getting too big for his boots - and needs a reality check

Norwegian striker Erling Haaland has been unstoppable so far this Premier League season, scoring 10 goals in the first five matches and bagging his 100th goal for the club. On average, he’s scoring a goal every 85 minutes, which is borderline superhuman.

There’s no doubting his ability. But his ego? That appears to be spiralling out of control...

Following Man City’s 2-2 draw against Arsenal at the weekend, the Norwegian appeared to throw the ball at the head off opposing defender Gabriel. In the following bust-up and confrontation, Haaland squared up to Gunners boss Mikel Arteta and yelled at him to “stay humble”. He also asked “who are you” to 17-year-old Miles Lewis-Skelly, who was making his debut appearance for the London side.

Perhaps it’s time for him to take a look in the mirror. Confidence is one thing, but theres a difference between being competitive and just being obnoxious.

I recently went on holiday to Norway, and Haaland’s face is literally everywhere; on murals, book covers - in Stavanger his face is even plastered on the side of the Aftenblad newsroom. To a tourist it’s clear to see he’s basically the country’s idol. Children look up to him, teenagers wish they were him and adults rue not trying harder in PE at school.

It’s a lovely country too, where everyone is fantastically kind and police. So what sort of example is he setting to them by throwing a football at someone’s head and squaring up to opponents, after a close-fought game where he scored once again?

His ego - and widespread popularity - are not too dissimilar to another Manchester footballer, albeit one from the red side of the city. In the early 2000s, David Beckham’s face was literally everywhere, from the front pages of swooning gossip mags to Pepsi adverts. You could hardly go anywhere in England without either seeing Beckham’s mug or hearing him brought up in conversation.

What happened to him? Well, his ego inflated to the size of Jupiter, he fell out with manager Sir Alex Ferguson and found himself being shipped off to Real Madrid. Sure, he succeeded there too, but there was always the impression that had he just kept his arrogance in check, he would have stayed at United and enjoyed many more years there, instead of club-hopping in Europe before fleeing to the MLS.

Maybe instead of goading others into “staying humble” a bit of introspection could go a long way.