West Ham 1, Manchester City 3
Erling Haaland hit his second hat trick in a week as Manchester City beat a feisty West Ham at the London Stadium.
Embed from Getty ImagesHaaland scored twice in the first half, either side of a Ruben Dias own goal, as Manchester City dominated although Kevin De Bruyne, Mohammed Kudus, and Crysencio Summerville hit the woodwork.
The Hammers made life difficult for City until Haaland completed his hat trick with a glorious run into space at the end of the game to send City back to the top of the Premier League..
City made just one enforced change from the opening two games of the season – Jack Grealish came in for the injured Savinho who will miss 10 days due to a knee injury.
But it was West Ham who made the more confident start, causing City some early worries with Jarrod Bowen’s curling shot saved by Ederson.
Erling Haaland headed a plum chipped cutback by Bernardo Silva over the bar but Haaland was on point with a slotted finish into the bottom corner when Silva caught Lucas Pacqueta dawdling on the ball and quickly release the Norwegian to break the deadlock after 10 minutes.
Grealish could have doubled the lead but his shot was blocked by two retreating Hammers defenders.
De Bruyne’s curling effort after a 1-2 from his own corner was tipped away by Alphonse Areola as City moved up a gear.
The Belgian also hit the post with a curling shot from the edge of the area with Grealish firing the rebound wide as City tried to extend their lead against the stunned Hammers.
But City were themselves stunned by Ruben Dias’ own goal after Jarrod Bowen’s teasing cross into the area took a wicked deflection off the City defender and went past a wrong footed Ederson after 19 minutes.
But there was no keeping City down as Haaland thrashed in his 69th goal in his 69th Premier League appearance after a simple lay off by Rico Lewis following intricate build up into the West Ham box on the half hour mark. It was his second goal of the match and his 5th at the London Stadium.
Haaland returned the favour to Lewis 8 minutes later but the City youngster blazed over under pressure.
De Bruyne’s free kick at the end of the first half clipped the roof of the net as City came close to extending their lead while Mohammed Kudus’ driving run ended with a shot that whistled past the back post.
West Ham were forced into a half time change, with the injured Areola replaced by veteran keeper Lucasz Fabianski for his 200th appearance for the Hammers.
Kudus smashed a shot against the post after exchanging passes with Bowen as West Ham caught City cold following a sluggish start to the second half by the visitors who committed men forward looking for a third goal but found it harder to reach Haaland for his hat trick.
West Ham kept the pressure up during the second half when Michail Antonio was denied a clear shooting chance by Manuel Akanji.
Even Ederson had to get in on the act, racing off his line to head away the loose ball after the Hammers went direct to beat the City press.
City boss Pep Guardiola made a change after 68 minutes to bring on Ilkay Gundogan on for Jeremy Doku who had been targeted for rough treatment by West Ham in the second half. Bernardo Silva moved to the right flank to fill the gap.
Dias missed the chance to atone for his earlier error when he couldn’t get on the end of a teasing cross by De Bruyne.
Matheus Nunes replaced Grealish with 18 minutes to go and City began building again and with 7 minutes to go Haaland was released to chip Fabianski from the edge of the area.
The Norwegian had barely a kick in the second half until Nunes’ through ball gave him plenty of space to run into and he made no mistake for his 11th City hat trick – 8th in the Premier League – and 24th for club and country.
Only Robbie Fowler (9), Alan Shearer (11), and Sergio Aguero (12) have more hat tricks in the Premier League.
And remarkably it was Haaland’s 7th goal in 4 games this term – having netted in all 3 Premier League games so far.
West Ham almost scored a second goal in injury time when Crysencio Summerville’s curling shot was tipped against his post by Ederson right at the end of added time.