West Ham United 1-3 Manchester City: Inevitable Haaland scores second hat-trick in as many weeks

Erling Haaland scored yet another hat-trick as Manchester City defeated West Ham United at the London Stadium, cementing his status as the favourite for a third consecutive Premier League golden boot.

The home side levelled things up after going behind, Rúben Dias’ own goal putting the cat amongst the pigeons, but Pep Guardiola and Haaland weren’t going to let them escape with so much as a point.

As it happened

There was something distinctly of a bygone era about Manchester City’s trip to West Ham United on Saturday. Noel Gallagher, half of Oasis once more, sat upon high to watch a City side adorned in neon and navy stripes, just like all those years ago. If you squinted, you’d perhaps be forgiven for thinking this game was indeed taking place back in 1999. But there’s one big difference: the City sides of that era really weren’t that good. This one is.

Yes, there was a rock and roll star in the stands, but for once he wasn’t the centre of attention. There was a bona fide superstar on the pitch today, a player who achieves the impossible every single week by one-upping himself again and again.

Embed from Getty Images

That superstar is Erling Haaland. A little over two years since he bagged a brace at the London Stadium on his Premier League debut, he was back at it again. His first goal was typical Haaland. Bernardo Silva picked the pocket of Lucas Paquetá, himself on the receiving end of a hospital pass from an Emerson who was seemingly half the world away, slipped in his Norwegian target and watched him do the rest. One touch to steady himself, another to roll his effort with aplomb past a helpless Alphonse Areola.

It’s a goal we’ve seen him score time and time again. Everyone knows he’s a frightening goal scorer, but what he can be criticised for is everything else. Some might say Erling Haaland is all goals – today, he went on a solo mission to prove that’s not the case.

He perhaps hasn’t had a more complete performance than that of today. He did it all, whether it be offering a delicate through ball to Rico Lewis, who’s resulting shot ultimately flew up in the sky, or sprinting the entire length of the pitch to make a tackle: in the 36th minute, he left his central role up top to fill in at left back and force Michail Antonio out of play. This was a hungry, motivated Erling Haaland, and there is perhaps nothing in football scarier than that.

It helped that his team were cruising too. He notched his first goal in the 10th minute, and they could’ve had more quickly after. Jack Grealish was the first to miss, digging out a shot from under his feet that deflected wide for a corner. Then it was Kevin De Bruyne, who played a one-two with Grealish to the left of the box, faking a cross and instead curling a supersonic effort which very nearly caught Areola out. He wasn’t done there, either, latching onto a Jérémy Doku pullback before blasting another strike onto the post. All those chances came within eight minutes of the goal.

Embed from Getty Images

City looked like they were going to make mincemeat of the Hammers. But then, a minute after De Bruyne leathered the woodwork, something unexpected happened. West Ham went up the other end for the first time since the opening exchanges, Jarrod Bowen galloping down their righthand side before offering a hopeful cross into the area. Unfortunately for him, there wasn’t a claret shirt in the box; unfortunately for City, that didn’t matter.

The cross was low and fizzed and before Rúben Dias knew it, he’d inadvertently directed the ball underneath Ederson and into the back of his own net. City had let their lead slide away and it was their most assured defensive guardian who landed the killer blow. For a manager with such intricate orchestration as Pep Guardiola, these mistakes simply don’t happen. In fairness to Julen Lopetegui, levelling things up through an opposition player’s own goal probably wasn’t part of the masterplan either. But such was the situation: West Ham, out of nothing, were level.

Embed from Getty Images

But this is Manchester City we’re talking about here. They don’t let the occasional goal slow them down. They don’t panic, they don’t rush proceedings, they certainly don’t change tact. Instead, they roll with it, and they hit back – and that’s exactly what they did here.

Enter stage right Erling Haaland. He’d already notched one, and in a stadium he loves so much, he was never going to be content with just that. 30 minutes in, City had room on the edge of the West Ham penalty area. They were patient, methodical, intricate. Lewis was the man to spot his striker, laying it off to him with far too much room than he should have been afforded. Once that happens, the rest is a formality: one touch to control, another to hammer the ball with ferocity into Areola’s near post.

West Ham didn’t exactly lie down. On 52 minutes, they broke with pace once again. Bowen was again the instigator, driving forwards before sending a low ball to Mohammed Kudus in the area. He took a touch, wound up a shot and hammered his effort onto Ederson’s near post. Both sides had now hit the post, Lopetegui’s side not letting themselves flutter out of the game.

You can fight back against Manchester City all you like, though. If you don’t score, you’ve got to reckon with the fact that Erling Haaland is always lurking, waiting, desperate to score yet more goals and break yet more records.

Embed from Getty Images

So he went and scored again to seal things in the 83rd minute. Matheus Nunes found a pocket of space in the middle of the park, looked up and saw his teammate, head down, gunning for it. Once he latched onto the through ball, he had acres of grass and substitute keeper Łucasz Fabiański between him and a second hat-trick in as many games. So, obviously, he slipped the ball past him into the far post to collect another match ball.

He’s electric. An inevitable force of nature, the likes of which this competition has seldom seen. 69 Premier League games played; 70 Premier League goals scored. A record that would make the league’s chief goals-per-game expert Sergio Agüero blush. With that, he’d scored six goals in only three games at the London Stadium, and City were home and dry.

Easy does it for Manchester City. On the same day Oasis sold one million tickets to their first shows in 15 years, the band’s boyhood club was the star of the show. West Ham have to acquiesce another defeat at the hands of Guardiola’s men, the blue moon rising over the London Stadium once more.

As for City – they couldn’t win five in a row, could they? Definitely. Maybe.

The lineups

WHU: Areola; Emerson, Kilman, Mavropanos, Wan-Bissaka; Álvarez, Rodríguez; Kudus, Paquetá, Bowen; Antonio

MCI: Ederson; Gvardiol, Dias, Akanji, Lewis; Kovačić, Bernardo; Grealish, De Bruyne, Doku; Haaland