Second-half goals from Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland helped Manchester City come from behind to beat in-form West Ham and continue their winning start to the Premier League season.
James Ward-Prowse’s diving header gave the Hammers the lead against the run of play, but Doku’s first City goal restored parity 43 seconds after the interval.
Silva then collected Julian Alvarez’s looping ball over the top of the West Ham defence before calmly prodding past the onrushing Alphonse Areola.
Haaland, who had squandered several earlier opportunities, extended City’s lead with a trademark finish.
City restore their two-point lead over Tottenham and Liverpool at the top of the table, while West Ham drop to sixth after suffering their first defeat of the campaign.
City patience pays off
There was little wrong with City’s first-half display at London Stadium, but, despite registering 17 shots before the break, they could not find a way past Areola and West Ham’s deep-lying rearguard.
They went close to taking a deserved lead after only six minutes, but Areola produced fine saves to deny Rodri and Ruben Dias either side of Tomas Soucek’s goal-line block from Haaland.
The Norwegian – of all people – squandered two glorious opportunities before half-time, somehow steering Doku’s low cross wide of the far post before having another shot cleared off the line by the retreating Nayef Aguerd.
Guardiola, back in the City dugout following surgery, will have asked for more of the same from his players at half-time and they were level moments after the restart as the lively Doku cut in from the left before producing an expert finish.
Alvarez rattled a post with a magnificent free-kick, but City were not to be denied as the Argentine scooped a clever ball over the West Ham defence for Silva to poke home.
Haaland delivered the icing on the cake late on, extending his league tally to seven goals in five games this season with a smart finish from Silva’s pass.
Source: BBC
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