Erling Haaland scored twice to take his Premier League tally to nine as Manchester City recovered from conceding after just 23 seconds to maintain their 100% record with victory over Brentford.
Visiting forward Yoane Wissa scored the quickest top-flight goal of the season, heading into an empty net from close range after John Stones and Ederson inexplicably messed up attempting to clear Keane Lewis-Potter’s nod-back.
City were rocking but Haaland steadied the ship, driving home the loose ball after Kevin de Bruyne had been tackled inside the Brentford box.
The Norwegian was playing despite the death of a close family friend in midweek. He scored a second before the break as he outmuscled Ethan Pinnock to reach Ederson’s long punt forward.
It left Haaland tantalisingly close to becoming only the fifth player in English top-flight history – and the first since 1946 – to score three successive hat-tricks.
He came close. Brentford keeper Mark Flekken tipped one goal-bound effort over the bar. Haaland then sent an instinctive first-time strike against the post and was unable to get enough power behind the rebound to take it into the net.
But, despite the crowd clearly willing him on, dad Alfie watching from the stands and manager Pep Guardiola opting not to take him off even though his side start their Champions League campaign with a 2023 final rematch against Inter Milan on Wednesday, this time Haaland had to settle for two.
Haaland’s on fire
As the game ticked into injury time, Haaland was confirmed as the club man of the match.
He has now taken his overall tally for City to 99 in 103 appearances. His Premier League ratio is more than one a game.
To put that into context, legendary striker Sergio Aguero took 390 games to score his club record 260 for the club. At the current rate, Haaland will overhaul the Argentine within three seasons.
And the secondary point is he scores goals from nothing, which, on days like these, is absolutely priceless.
New arrival Savinho looks a major threat. But despite getting himself into a couple of excellent positions, he could not convert.
It has been said Haaland doesn’t contribute to City’s overall game and sometimes restricts their fluidity. But he also ensures they win matches when they might drop points, as they almost certainly would have on this occasion had he not made his personal intervention.
It wasn’t just about Haaland. There was also evidence of Jack Grealish’s return to form with a smart effort that required a full-length low save from Flekken. A week out from a meeting with old rivals Arsenal, Rodri made his seasonal bow as a second-half substitute, although Phil Foden remained on the bench.
But Haaland took the accolades, which, given the personal sadness he has had to deal with this week, seemed fitting.
Brentford frustration
As Bryan Mbeumo found himself through on goal but failed to convert as Rico Lewis sped back to intervene, a member of the Brentford backroom staff, observing proceedings from the media seats, slammed his hand with some force into the desk in front of him.
It was a good chance. But the underlying frustration went beyond that single moment.
Even though the game was just minutes old, there was a sense City would not continue in the same manner they had started the game.
There were more opportunities for the visitors before the break. Ederson raced from his goal just in time to prevent Wissa getting to the ball with no-one else near, Mbuemo failed to make contact with an ambitious attempted overhead kick. Ederson produced a smart reaction save on his goal-line to deny Nathan Collins and the Brazilian also foiled Lewis-Potter.
It was a volume of opportunities Brentford cannot have expected. The fact they delivered a single goal meant they had not exploited their good work.
Guardiola’s decision to bring on Rodri and Josko Gvardiol during the interval was proof the City boss had got the make up of his team wrong.
City weren’t perfect after that but Brentford had lost some of their energy. Mbeumo went the wrong way when a pass to his right would have set up Kevin Shade and Yehor Yarmolyuk wasted a decent opportunity late on. But in reality, Brentford’s chance of victory disappeared as the media desk table was shaking much earlier in the afternoon.
