Erling Haaland has revealed that the key to his incredible scoring form is to not think about goals at all.

Haaland scored his sixth hat-trick of the season on Saturday as Manchester City booked a place in the FA Cup semi-finals with a 6-0 thrashing of Burnley.

The striker’s quickfire double near the end of the first half put City in control after a closely-fought opening 30 minutes, before his third on the hour mark ended the contest.

Having become City’s all-time leading goalscorer in a single season during the 7-0 mauling of RB Leipzig on Tuesday, Haaland took his goal tally for the season to 42, eight of which have come in the past week.

The 22-year-old has now scored more hat-tricks in all competitions this season than all the other Premier League players combined (five), and looks set to smash even more scoring records before the end of the season.

Speaking to BBC Sport after the match, Haaland made a surprising admission about the art of goalscoring: the secret is to not think about scoring at all.

What did Haaland say?

“No, I have not [set a target],” he said. “I’m a striker, I love to score goals, but my focus is not on scoring goals but on getting the chances. If I get the chances, there’s a good chance I’ll score.

“It’s been a good couple of games – important games. 7-0 and 6-0 before the national team break is impressive.

“I’m really happy. Every goal for the team means a lot. It’s an amazing win against a really good Burnley side. I’m really happy and our next game is at Wembley.”

City have now won six consecutive games and are unbeaten in 10. Haaland admitted that the pressure of trying to catch Premier League leaders Arsenal has brought the best out of the team.

“I think we’re in the part of the season where we should be at our best,” he said.

“Of course, we should be at our best all the time, but we have to perform every single game. The last couple of games have been finals – that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.”