West Ham 0, Manchester City 2
Erling Haaland scored twice as Manchester City started off their Premier League title defence with a comfortable win at West Ham.
Embed from Getty Images“Players like Erling Haaland were born scoring goals.” said City boss Pep Guardiola after the game.
“We hung in the game as long as we could but we were well outplayed by the better team today.” admitted West Ham boss David Moyes.
After picking up some criticism after drawing a blank in the Community Shield last weekend he responded by picking up a brace at the London Stadium.
Pep Guardiola made just two changes from the side that lost to Liverpool in the Community Shield – Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden started while Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva stepped down to the bench.
The 22-year-old Norwegian, watched by his dad Alfie Haaland, opened his account with a penalty after 36 minutes against substitute goalkeeper Alphonse Areola who had replaced the injured Lucasz Fabianski and caught the Norwegian as he ran onto a forward pass.
Haaland got onto the end of a Kevin De Bruyne through ball and finishing with aplomb in the second half – the only two shots on target for City in a game that they dominated.
West Ham didn’t provide much resistance after a good start and couldn’t get the ball off City for much of the rest of the game.
MATCH STATS – West Ham 0, Man City 2
West Ham: Fabianski (Areola 29), Coufal, Johnson, Zouma, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Bowen (Downes 90+2), Lanzini (Benrahma 57), Fornals (Coventry 90+2), Antonio (Scamacca 57)
West Ham subs not used: Randolph, Vlasic, Oko-Flex, Ashby
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Ake, Cancelo, De Bruyne (Palmer 88), Rodri (Phillips 88), Gundogan (Bernardo Silva 78), Foden (Mahrez 88), Haaland (Alvarez 78), Grealish
Manchester City subs not used: Ortega, Stones, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand
Booked: Cancelo
Goals: Haaland 36 pen, 65
Referee: Michael Oliver