Haaland breaks Premier League record as City cruise back to top

The striker bagged his 51st goal of the campaign and his 35th in the league - now the highest goalscoring season of the Premier League era

Manchester City's Erling Haaland celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game, breaking the record for most goals in a Premier League season, during the Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire. 

Premier League: Man City 3 West Ham 0 

FEW will remember this workmanlike victory when the story of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City’s 2022-23 season is told, especially if it ends in a treble, but Nathan Ake’s first half goal may yet prove as significant as many in this year’s title race.

The visit of a team still with serious concerns over relegation should not have been this taxing for a team on course for its date with destiny.

But not until Erling Haaland scored City’s second, after 70 minutes, could his manager and supporters finally relax and Phil Foden’s 85th minute volley was simply cruel for the visitors.

A run of 10 games packed into 38 days, starting with this, could see Guardiola’s team become the first since Manchester United in 1999 to win the treble of league, FA Cup and Champions League.

The victory took City back on top of the Premier League table by one point over Arsenal, and with a game in hand, as first place changed hands for the third time in the last four days.

And while his side earned few style points for their 14th win in the last 15 games - a run in which their only “failure” was a draw at Bayern Munich - Guardiola’s manic attitude spoke volumes about its importance.

The Dutch defender struck four minutes into the second half with a set-piece goal which, considering how well West Ham had defended in the first period, must have been a disappointment to their manager David Moyes.

Riyad Mahrez swung in a perfectly-judged free-kick and Ake had timed his run just as expertly, arriving ahead of his markers to head in from four yards.

Finally, on 70 minutes, all of a City persuasion could breathe easy as Jack Grealish played Haaland clean through on goal for the first time on the evening and the striker lifted a perfect finish into the Hammers’ goal.

It was his 51st goal of the campaign and his 35th in the league - now the highest goalscoring season of the Premier League era and the most in the top flight since Ron Davies scored 37 for Southampton in 1966-67.

West Ham’s trials were not over and, five minutes from time, Lucas Paqueta headed a corner out of his area, straight to Foden who scored with a sensational 20-yard volley that left the keeper rooted to the spot.

But, to their credit, West Ham had made this far more anxious and troublesome than might have been expected.

Julian Alvarez set the tone for what was meant to be a one-way procession to the West Ham goal after 75 seconds, producing a shot which Lukasz Fabianski saved comfortably enough.

With the Hammers suffering a pre-match bout of illness in their camp, one that robbed them of Declan Rice among others, this should have been another routine obstacle for City to brush aside on the march to a fifth league title in the last six years.

But the visitors had other ideas and a City side, without the injured Kevin De Bruyne, lacked the guile, patience and necessary vision to find an easy breakthrough.

They had Haaland, of course, and that meant they were a threat every time the ball entered the final third although the closest City came to a first half goal was when the Norwegian turned provider and Rodri’s shot hit the foot of the post and the ball rolledg agonisingly along the goalline.

By late in the half, Guardiola’s frustrations were beginning to show and Alvarez, in particular, on the receiving end of a couple of his rants.

Grealish had clipped the post with a long-range effort and a John Stones header from a corner bounced just wide but it was a modest return for all their possession and Jarrod Bowen had even had the audacity to force Stefan Ortega, playing in order to rest first-choice keeper Ederson, into a save at the foot of his near-post.

The timing of the goal, therefore, was perfect in terms of relieving City’s anxiety and lowering Guardiola’s blood pressure which, even by his elevated standards, must have been troubling his medical staff.

And Haaland was the omnipresent threat. A Grealish pass played him in, although Haaland was forced wide.

But, by their standards, City were curiously flat; the crowd, too. Guardiola indicated as much around the hour when West Ham forced three corners in quick succession and the manager pumped his arms to demand more backing from his supporters.

Not for the first - and probably not for the last - time this season, Haaland answered.

MAN CITY (4-1-4-1): Ortega 6; Walker 6, Stones 8, Dias 6, Ake 9 (Akanji 76, 5); Rodri 7 (Phillips 90); Mahrez 6, Alvarez 5 (Foden 76, 6), Silva 7, Grealish 7; Haaland 7. Substitutes (not used) Gundogan, Laporte, Gomez, Ederson, Perrone, Lewis.

WEST HAM (5–3-1-1): Fabianski 7; Coufal 6 (Johnson 62, 6), Kehrer 7, Ogbonna 8, Cresswell 7, Emerson 7; Bowen 7 (Benrahma 78, 5), Downes 6, Paqueta 6, Fornals 6; Antonio 5 (Ings 67, 5). Substitutes (not used) Lanzini, Areola, Cornet, Anang.

Referee: J Brooks 7