Haaland brace for City takes Blues to top of the table with Arsenal still to play
Manchester City defeated West Ham United 3-0 in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon to complete their seventh consecutive victory. The Blues were at home again just three days after their carabao cup victory over Brentford. The lineup remained vastly the same. Donnarumma was in goal. O’Reilly, Gvardiol, Dias, and Nunes were in defence. Gonzaalez, Bernardo and Reijnders were in midfield with Foden, Cherki, and Haaland in attack.
It didn’t take long for the Blues to take the lead, with Haaland scoring in just the 4th minute when Foden passed it into him and his initial attempt was saved before sending home the rebound to make it 1-0. Just the start that City wanted. A few moments later, Haaland had the chance to double the lead and get his second goal when Cherki’s cross found his head but his attempt went wide.
There were periods of the game where West Ham had possession and managed to gain a few chances out of this, but were unable to hit the target, with the closest they came to doing so in the first half was an attempt from Bowen which strayed just wide across the face of goal.
City were able to double their lead in the 37th minute after Cherki dispossessed West Ham near the box and dribbled in and passed to Haaland who laid it off to Reijnders who put the ball in the roof of the net to double City’s lead before half-time. 2-0
At the start of the second half, West Ham almost very nearly hit back when Bowen passed the ball into Potts, whose shot was well saved by Donnarumma before rebounding to Fernandes whose shot went flying over the bar. West Ham gained another clear-cut chance shortly after with Bowen breaking away from O’Reilly to be through on goal but his shot was wide of the post, similar to his opportunity in the first half.
After a range of substitutions, City were able to put the game to bed through a second Haaland goal after Savio ran into the box and after the West Ham defences attempt to dispossess the City attack was unsuccessful the ball fell to the Norwegian striker to bang in his second goal of the game, capping off an excellent performance from both himself and for City. He had the chance to get his hat-trick late on, but his shot was narrowly wide.
The win moves City into top of the table with Arsenal still to play and gives them their seventh consecutive win in a row. To some relief, the Blues now have a whole week without a fixture, allowing some time to rest and for injured players to recover more before the second half of the season gets underway. Next up for the Blues in their last game of 2025 will be Nottingham Forest away next Saturday.