Erling Haaland’s 24th career hat-trick made it three wins from three for Manchester City as they battled past a resilient West Ham at the London Stadium.
The Norway striker put City ahead with a cool finish before Ruben Dias turned a cross from Jarrod Bowen into his own net to draw West Ham level. Haaland then smashed a second past Alphonse Areola to give City a half-time lead.
West Ham impressed after the break and looked to be pushing the game towards a nervy finale before Haaland grabbed his third in the 83rd minute — and make it back to back hat-tricks after his goals against Ipswich Town last weekend.
Sam Lee analyses the key talking points from City’s win in east London…
The unstoppable Erling Haaland
Given Haaland did the exact same celebration that he did two years ago, when he scored twice here on his Premier League debut to give everybody a taste of what was to come, comparisons with that season (his very best level, so far) are inevitable.
Guardiola dropped a few hints this summer about not being completely satisfied with the Norwegian and last week, after a hat-trick against Ipswich, he revealed exactly what was annoying him. In short, he wanted the 24-year-old to press more. He has also said that last season the striker was struggling a bit for fitness, whereas this time he looks and feels much sharper, like that first year when the records tumbled, seemingly every week.
And that is how this campaign is going so far: not that this did not happen last year, but he just seems to be racking up goals without even thinking. Last week he got another hat-trick (his 10th for City alone) by stealth, and did so again in east London after slotting in his stock cool finish and then rifling home a much tougher effort inside half an hour.
(Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
City were, for the most part, miles better than the hosts but the scoreline did not reflect it and, as a result, Guardiola’s men tightened their belts towards the end, which meant that service was restricted. And yet, when Matheus Nunes played the ball through beautifully towards the end, there was never any doubt. The clipped finish was every bit as breezy as his second goal here two years ago.
He’s on seven goals after three league games…
You just know that on the other side of the international break, Kyle Walker will be named in a City line-up and it will look like he’s never been away.
Sure, he does not give the team as many options going forward as Rico Lewis, who again looked fantastic here, contributing in every area of the pitch (though he should have scored), but there are plenty of games when he is exactly what is required.
“What Rico gives to the team, Kyle cannot give us, and what Kyle gives to us, Rico cannot do it,” as Guardiola put it on Friday. With Lewis in the team, City have their John Stones replacement, in the sense that he is a defender who can move all the way up the pitch and give the team that extra man that they essentially need, to offset Haaland’s more passive presence.
That will require somebody like Stones, or Josko Gvardiol, pushing up and making themselves more of a threat than Walker generally does, and while, right now, it feels like Lewis is not just the future but the present, it is not like Guardiola is short of alternative plans, nor that Walker has nothing left to offer.
What you would expect, as the season progresses, is for Lewis to play more than previous seasons and Walker to play less, but Walker is bound to remind everybody of his importance soon.
And if not, the alternative is right there waiting.
City can win without Rodri
Guardiola was quick to come out with this one after the opening-weekend victory against Chelsea.
“My advice: when people doubt something about this club we are going to break it, so be careful.”
The question was about proving they could win without Rodri, given they have made that look incredibly difficult in recent years (losing three out of four without him in the league last season).
It is important to clarify that as soon as he is available, he will be back in the side and probably asked to play as much as he has been in recent years, but as it stands going into the international break, City have three wins from three and, although Chelsea did give them some troubles, nobody is sitting and talking about how they have missed the man who is surely their most important player.
Even last season, when they won the title again, it felt like they were one Rodri injury or ban away from the world crashing down, and maybe that turns out to be the case again, but it has barely been an issue so far and it will surely give Guardiola some encouragement that he can give Rodri a little more rest than he might have done in the past two seasons.
What did Pep Guardiola say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Manchester City?
Saturday, September 14: Brentford (H), Premier League, 3pm BST, 10am ET
Recommended reading
(Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
