Erling Haaland struck twice to inspire Manchester City to a comfortable 3-1 victory over Leeds United to lift the defending champions back up to second in the Premier League.

Haaland grew up in Yorkshire because his father, Alfe Inge, played for Leeds, but he didn’t hold back when City got back on track to win the title.

Pep Guardiola’s team came back from a shocking loss to Brentford before the World Cup to move within five points of Arsenal at the top of the table.

Haaland has scored 20 Premier League goals in just 14 games since he joined City, but he was still not happy after he missed three one-on-one chances against Illan Meslier.

“I could’ve scored five, that’s the truth,” Haaland told Amazon Prime.

“We win, that’s the most important thing. You see Arsenal at the top now, we have to hunt them, but for me as a striker, I could’ve scored a couple more.

“That’s life, I have to practise more.”

Haaland should have scored in the first 45 seconds, but Meslier made a great save to keep him from doing so.

That set the tone for a frustrating first half for City, in which a number of great chances were missed.

Meslier won another fight with Haaland, and Guardiola put his head in his hands after Jack Grealish missed two clear chances.

But it was very important that Leeds didn’t hold out until halftime with the score even. The visitors finally made their dominance count in the last few seconds of the first half.

Kevin De Bruyne opened up the Leeds defense for the first goal, and after Meslier blocked Riyad Mahrez’s shot, Rodri put in the rebound.

Grealish made up for his earlier misses by setting up the second goal. He intercepted the ball and gave it to Haaland, who rolled it into an empty net.

The City star didn’t celebrate because he used to play for Leeds, but that didn’t stop him from adding a second on the night after another pass from Grealish.

“I have to say, it’s a really special moment in my career,” Haaland said of playing at Elland Road.

“It was in my craziest fantasy I could think of to be at Elland Road and score for Manchester City against Leeds.”

Leeds are still in danger because they are only two points above the relegation zone, but they did score when Pascal Struijk headed in a corner kick 17 minutes from the end.

Haaland saved the home team from his fourth Premier League hat trick by finishing weakly when he only had Meslier to beat once more.

At the other end, Joe Gelhardt’s curling effort was just a few inches away from setting up a great finish.

But a two-goal win was the least City deserved after passing Newcastle to move into second place in the table.