Brace Up: Haaland shines for Man City on Premier League debut

The Norwegian forward withstood a difficult welcoming to English football in the Charity Shield 

Erling Haaland bagged a brace against Manchester City to help the champions to a 2-0 defeat of West Ham on opening day at the London Olympic Stadium.

Haaland scored his first of the evening in the 35th minute after running through a pass from Ilkay Gundogan.

Gundogan slotted a beautiful pocket pass through the West Ham defense and it met the strides of the former Borussia Dortmund forward who got to the ball first and was taken down by Alphonse Areola.

He took the resulting penalty to get off the mark in the Premier League.

Man City dictated for large spells and Haaland was in a good form as he dropped deep to help the midfield and also worked more seamlessly with the trio of Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne.

Haaland’s second came through a De Bruyne defense splitter and he ran through to place the ball between Areola’s legs.

 

How did Man City perform?

West Ham looked the more interested in opening exchanges but once City had their legs on the pedal, they never stopped riding.

A far better performance in comparison to their drab affair against Liverpool in the Community Shield, Man City defended well and extinguished attacks from the lively West Ham frontline.

Pep Guardiola must have less complaints after that convincing defensive display but would want a better attacking performance moving forward.

Grealish was culpable of snubbing a decent Haaland run in the first half and that chemistry must be one of the talking points from a coaching perspective for City.