Erling Haaland scored a brace on his Premier League debut as Manchester City defeated West Ham on the opening day of the season.
A trip to the London Stadium represented a potentially tricky assignment for Pep Guardiola's side, who often take a few games to get into their stride. While City weren't at their sparkling best on Sunday afternoon, Haaland's movement and efficiency in front of goal ensured that they left with all three points.
Haaland broke the deadlock from the penalty spot, after he was brought down by West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. City have struggled from the spot in recent seasons, but Haaland was a picture of confidence as he placed the ball down and stroked it into the bottom left corner of the goal.
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In the second half he scored a more typical Haaland goal; timing his run to perfection in behind the defence, he opened up his body and slid the ball home before celebrating in-front of the travelling fans, including his father Alf-Inge.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Haaland reflected on his two-goal outing, and admitted that there are still things he can improve.
"[It was] good to get minutes in the legs because it’s still early in the season. We have to keep going," Haaland said. "As expected, we saw the potential against Bayern [Munich], against Liverpool I was a little bit down but it will come with games. The goals will come, should’ve been more today but good start."
On not completing his hat-trick shortly before he was substituted, Haaland said: "If you saw with Gundo [Gundogan] right before I went off I should’ve been there [to score] so it was a bit s*** but that’s how it is. S***, sorry. Not good language in this country!"
On the on-field relationship with his new teammates, Haaland added: "It’s about the connections we do everyday in training, practicing this, we’ll get better at this. This will come even more so. I’m not worried."
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