West Ham vs Man City

City were at something close to our dominant best on Sunday afternoon, with two Erling Haaland goals seeing off West Ham United at the London Stadium.

Ake, Rodrigo, Dias and Walker took second to fifth respectively in that metric, showing that City spent a lot of time manoeuvring West Ham around the pitch before feeding into the attacking players. And City were equally as impressive in that regard. The beefed up midfield allowed City to dominate possession, making 833 passes and completing 774 of them. We won 39 of the 68 duels (57%) according to FotMob, beating the Hammers to the ball on the floor 28 times and in the air on 11 occasions. Haaland wasted no time letting Premier League defenders know exactly what to expect from him. That sees the Blues off to the perfect start in the Premier League as we seek to defend the title we have won in four of the last five seasons.

New Manchester City signing Erling Haaland marked a fine Premier League debut by scoring in each half as the champions began their title defence by ...

"Also now it is almost 30 minutes since I scored the last goal so I have to keep going." City, who had a first-half goal disallowed after Ilkay Gundogan was offside in the build-up, made a slightly disjointed start to the match but gradually strengthened their grip on the contest and doubled their lead after the hour mark. Haaland converted a penalty after 36 minutes and wrapped up the points with a composed finish in the second period to cap an impressive display, with his father and former City player Alfie celebrating in the stands.

Come the final day of the Premier League campaign nine months from now, this defeat by Manchester City is unlikely to stand out as a season defining result ...

“I think if someone were to take this ball, he would have punched his team-mates in the face. “The way he took the ball to take the penalty, I said, ‘Oh, I like it.’” Guardiola added. “But we would like to add something more to his game to be a better player. Not just a guy who scores goals and that’s why we want to try to give everything to him to be a better player.” Still, if this is just the start, then it is only natural to wonder what comes next. Might the second, a cool finish after romping clear of the back-line to latch onto a perfect Kevin De Bruyne pass, become the trademark of the first truly great centre-forward career to get under way in the Premier League since the rather less telegraphed emergence of Harry Kane?

West Ham United were well beaten by Manchester City at the London Stadium as Pep Guardiola's side strolled to a 2-0 victory, thanks to a brace from their ...

Made a promising start to his West Ham career. Tried to get on the end of some of the balls. Looked very leggy and may need a couple more games to get up to full fitness. Had a decent chance at the start of the second half from the edge of the box. A day to forget for the West Ham backline overall. The youngster struggled at centre-back, was caught lacking a few times and couldn’t really compete with Haaland.

Manchester City beat West Ham to get their Premier League title defence off to a winning start.

"Today, tactically they were much better. Tactically they changed, Walker and Cancelo either side of Rodri, they played with no full-backs. "They changed from last year when we played them a few months ago, we gave them a better game.