Manchester City moved to the top of the Premier League table with a 3-1 win at West Ham United in Saturday’s evening kick-off.
Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick for the second week running to maintain the champions’ 100% start to the 2024/25 season.
Julen Lopetegui’s side have now lost both of their home Premier League games to open the new campaign.
How the game unfolded
West Ham enjoyed a fast start to the match, with Josko Gvardiol having to clear a deflected Mohammed Kudus to prevent Michail Antonio from tapping in at the back post, while Ederson palmed away a stinging strike from Jarrod Bowen.
The first chance for the visitors saw Haaland miss a header from close range. Bernardo Silva made a clever run off of Jack Grealish and delivered a high cross for his Norwegian teammate, who couldn’t keep his effort down.
But Haaland made no mistake with his second chance on the ten-minute mark. Emerson Palmieri played a poor ball into Lucas Paqueta that was pounced upon by Bernardo Silva, whose pass into Haaland was perfect and he was able to roll the ball past a helpless Alphonse Areola.
West Ham were proving their own worst enemies as Konstantinos Mavropanos lost out to Haaland, who set Kevin De Bruyne racing away. Possession shifted to Jack Grealish, whose shot was deflected behind. From the resulting corner, Areola produced a flying save to deny a whipped De Bruyne strike.
De Bruyne went ever closer when he rattled the post at the end of a swift City breakaway, before Grealish’s rebound whistled over the woodwork.
City were punished for not adding a second as West Ham pulled level on 19 minutes through an own goal. Bowen scampered away down the right and delivered a teasing cross, which was turned into his own net by Ruben Dias.
But it didn’t take too long for Pep Guardiola’s side to go back in front. Some quick interchanges on the edge of the West Ham box saw the ball eventually land at the feet of Haaland, who arrowed a strike into the top of the net.
Haaland so nearly turned provider for Rico Lewis with a deft flick in behind the West Ham backline, but the full-back’s shot sailed over.
After the break, West Ham went ever so close to equalising for a second time. City failed to scramble the ball over the line at one end, and the Hammers launched a quick counter attack which saw Bowen slot in Kudus, who could only strike the post.
Bowen was continuing to cause problems for City, next up feeding Antonio with a disguised ball towards the near post, which had to be turned behind at close range for a corner.
City broke up the pattern of West Ham’s pressure with an opportunity of their own just after the hour mark. Grealish drifted infield and teed up Silva, but his strike was weak and failed to cause any trouble.
A De Bruyne cross following a short corner then found Dias awaiting at the back post. However, Aaron Wan-Bissaka did enough to put off the Portuguese defender and he could only poke the ball behind.
With under ten minutes remaining, City had their third and Haaland had his second-successive hat-trick. The champions sliced right through the middle of West Ham, who pushed high and allowed the striker space to sprint into. Matheus Nunes came up with the killer pass, and Haaland dinked it over Lukasz Fabianski – brought on for the injured Areola – to round off the scoring.
Haaland saw a low shot trickle away between the legs of Fabianski in added time while Crysencio Summerville brought a fine save out of Ederson, but neither could find the net and City’s 3-1 victory was confirmed seconds later.
GK: Alphonse Areola – 5/10 – Beaten by two vicious Haaland strikes before being withdrawn at half-time, presumably due to injury.
RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 6/10 – Did well to limit Grealish’s actions and impact before switching to the left when Coufal was introduced.
CB: Konstantinos Mavropanos – 5/10 – Wasn’t outrageously horrendous or notably awful, but you do wonder when Jean-Clair Todibo will be given the chance to partner fellow new signing Kilman in a big Premier League game.
CB: Max Kilman – 5/10 – Wasn’t shy in getting touch-tight to Haaland, though the times he came back to haunt West Ham. Alert to danger when the ball wasn’t heading in the Norwegian’s direction, at least.
LB: Emerson Palmieri – 3/10 – Sold Paqueta short leading up to Haaland’s opener. Couldn’t find a way to get close to Doku.
CM: Edson Alvarez – 5/10 – Brought his usual steel and energy as well as the odd switch of play. Needed to do more when West Ham were drowning in the first half, but probably expected more from his new midfield partner too.
CM: Guido Rodriguez – 5/10 – Perhaps a little over-eager to bite into challenges. Still adapting to England and getting used to playing with his new teammates, consistently missing shouts from the back to leave the ball.
RW: Jarrod Bowen – 7/10 – At the heart of everything positive West Ham strung together. Delivered the cross which was turned in by Dias.
AM: Lucas Paqueta – 5/10 – Fingers will be pointed in the direction of Paqueta over City’s first goal, even if there wasn’t much he could realistically do about the wayward pass from Emerson. Had some nice moments in possession but wasn’t the X-factor West Ham needed to really get off the canvas and land a brutal blow.
LW: Mohammed Kudus – 6/10 – Threatened to eat City up in transition. Like Paqueta showed his quality on occasion, though not enough to earn West Ham a point.
CF: Michail Antonio – 5/10 – Gave his all and worked hard for the cause, though at crucial moments was muscled out by City’s younger and more athletic defenders.
Substitutes
SUB: Lukasz Fabianski (46′ for Areola) – 5/10 – Didn’t have too much to do as City slowed down in the second half. Lobbed by Haaland but hey, we’ve all been there.
SUB: Vladimir Coufal (71′ for Emerson) – 5/10
SUB: Niclas Fullkrug (71′ for Antonio) – 5/10
SUB: Tomas Soucek (77′ for Alvarez) – 5/10
SUB: Crysencio Summerville (86′ for Bowen) – N/A
Subs not used: Jean-Clair Todibo, Kaelan Casey, Andy Irving, Luis Guilherme
Manager
Julen Lopetegui – 5/10 – West Ham at times showed real promise with their pressing and in transition, but they’re clearly still a work in progress.
GK: Ederson – 6/10 – Alert off his line to clear danger. Was rarely given trouble in way of shot-stopping.
RB: Rico Lewis – 7/10 – Seems to have relegated Walker to the bench with a series of fine performances in City’s inverted right-back role. Credited with an assist for Haaland’s second goal.
CB: Manuel Akanji – 6/10 – The Swiss defender’s supreme technique and muscular build meant Antonio didn’t break him into much of a sweat.
CB: Ruben Dias – 5/10 – A tad clumsy for the own goal and guilty of some skewed passing, but aside from that was largely fine.
LB: Josko Gvardiol – 6/10 – Put to work by Bowen down his side, even if the only tangible blemish on his record was allowing the cross for Dias’ own goal.
DM: Mateo Kovacic – 6/10 – Bright in the first half but notably faded in the second when West Ham turned up the pressure. Not as strong or imposing as Rodri so that made sense.
CM: Bernardo Silva – 7/10 – Now clear of Cristiano Ronaldo (37), Bruno Fernandes (41) and Nani (43) as the Portuguese player with the most Premier League assists (44). Tidy and energetic as ever.
CM: Kevin De Bruyne – 7/10 – Now at the stage of his career where even if he’s not chalking up goals or assists, De Bruyne is completely controlling the flow of the game without the need to take over from a physical perspective.
RW: Jeremy Doku – 7/10 – Tormented Emerson from the off. Hurried his way into space and down the touchline. Fizzed his crosses towards City bodies but didn’t always find his man when he maybe should have.
CF: Erling Haaland – 10/10 – Now averaging over one goal-per-game in the Premier League, with 70 in 69 outings for City. Insane.
LW: Jack Grealish – 6/10 – A solid if safe return to the starting lineup for Grealish, who was quicker in releasing the ball than usual and knew when to bring others into play.
Substitutes
SUB: Ilkay Gundogan (68′ for Doku) – 6/10
SUB: Matheus Nunes (72′ for Grealish) – 7/10
SUB: Kyle Walker (88′ for Gvardiol) – N/A
SUB: Nathan Ake (88′ for De Bruyne) – N/A
Subs not used: Stefan Ortega (GK), John Stones, Rodri, Nico O’Reilly, James McAtee
Manager
Pep Guardiola – 7/10 – City had total control of the game for long stretches, though when they didn’t they were alarmingly open. A good win on the board but still work to do for the long season ahead.
Player of the match – Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
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