- Haaland has now netted 70 goals in 69 games during his Premier League career
By Joseph Armstrong-Gardner
19:20, Sat, Aug 31, 2024
Manchester City defeated West Ham in the Premier League at the London Stadium on Saturday.
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Manchester City produced another outstanding display against West Ham United as they defeated the Hammers with ease, with a comfortable 3-1 victory at the London Stadium on Saturday. Erling Haaland was the center of attention once again as he proved his worth to City by bagging another 3 goals.
The Norway international opened the scoring in the 10th minute, after a poor pass from the West Ham fullback Emerson to Lucas Paquetá, who could not stop Bernardo Silva from snatching the ball from his grasp and playing a beautiful through pass to Erling Haaland, who slotted the ball past Areola with immense composure.
Shortly after Haaland’s first goal, City took a quick corner with some neat passing interchange from Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne, which led to a whipped shot from De Bruyne that Alphonse Areola aesthetically saved.
Later on, Jérémy Doku (a summer edition from last season) found Kevin De Bruyne in the penalty area, who then went on to rattle the right post with his strike that seemed to have beaten Areola.
Just 9 minutes after Erling Haaland’s 10th-minute opener, a poor cross from West Ham attacker Jarrod Bowen was intercepted by the knee of Rúben Dias, taking the ball past Ederson, resulting in an unfortunate own goal for the City center-back.
In the 30th minute, Rico Lewis set up Erling Haaland with a short ground pass on the edge of the penalty area for his second goal of the game as he rifled the top right-hand corner with a power shot leaving Areola no chance.
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Early in the second half, Mohammed Kudus had a promising run forward playing a gratifying 1-2 with Jarrod Bowen before striking the left post with his powerful shot.
Towards the end of the game in the 83rd minute, Matheus Nunes exquisitely dribbled past 2 West Ham players before playing an immaculate long through pass into the path of Haaland, who chipped West Ham’s 39-year-old keeper, Łukasz Fabiański, who replaced the injured Alphonse Areola at half time. This delightful dink over Fabiański completed Haaland’s first away hat-trick for Manchester City.
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In the final few moments of the game, Crysencio Summerville had a finesse shot from the left side of the pitch, which Ederson incredibly saved as he was able to touch the ball onto the right post, denying the Hammers a second goal.