Man City 3-0 West Ham: Haaland's brace leads hosts to the top in comfortable win

Manchester City cruised to a simple 3-0 victory over struggling West Ham to pile more misery on Nuno Espirito Santo, with his side now guaranteed to spend Christmas in the relegation zone.

Match Report

Haaland, who scored his 100th Premier League goal earlier this month in a 5-4 victory at Fulham, now boasts 124 goal involvements in the English top flight (104 goals, 20 assists) and 77 in the Bundesliga (62 goals, 15 assists).

He only needed five minutes to open the scoring on Saturday, sweeping home on the rebound from his own saved shot after being picked out by Phil Foden's centre.

City were utterly dominant in the first half, with West Ham not attempting a single shot and only registering two touches in the penalty area, and Pep Guardiola's men went two goals up in the 38th minute.

Rayan Cherki dispossessed Mateus Fernandes and dribbled into a crowded penalty area before offloading for Haaland, who in turn found Tijjani Reijnders for a powerful finish.

West Ham started the second half more positively, with Gianluigi Donnarumma making a sharp double save to deny Crysencio Summerville and Freddie Potts, before Jarrod Bowen passed up two decent chances, one from each side of the area.

But Haaland put the contest to bed 21 minutes from time after Rico Lewis flicked Matheus Nunes' pass into his path, side-footing past Alphonse Areola with aplomb.

The win takes City above Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table, though they will be displaced if the Gunners win at Everton later on Saturday. West Ham, meanwhile, will spend Christmas in 18th place.

Data Debrief: More landmarks for Haaland

Haaland's 201 goal involvements in the Bundesliga and the Premier League (166 goals, 35 assists in total) have come in just 165 games.

For context, that is far fewer games than Luis Suarez (192), Kylian Mbappe (194) and Lionel Messi (195) required to bring up a double century. Cristiano Ronaldo needed almost a full 100 more, reaching that mark at 259 games.

And with 19 Premier League goals this season, Haaland has matched the record for goals before Christmas in a single season, along with Andy Cole (1993-94), Kevin Phillips (1999-00) and Suarez (2013-14).

He helped City become only the third side in Premier League history to score three or more goals in six successive wins against a particular side, after Arsenal against Sunderland in October 2007 and Manchester United against Nottingham Forest in December 2022.

And the Irons could have few complaints about the result, having only put up an expected goals (xG) figure of 0.99 – all of which came in the second half – to City's 2.43.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

5' Haaland manages to get free in the box! Man City 1-0 West Ham

9' Haaland's header wide out

13' Josko Gvardiol's header over the bar

25' Haaland's shot wide out

29' Nico goes down but no card to defender

32' Close! Bowen's shot wide out

36' Tijjani Reijnders denied by Alphonse Areola

39' GOAL! Tijjani Reijnders doubles city's lead! Man City 2-0 West Ham

48' Donnarumma pulling off an absolutely insane save is the kind of world-class

54' Huge chance for Bowen, rounding Donnarumma but only finding the side netting

56' Another big chance for West Ham and Jarrod Bowen again

69' Erling Haaland pounces to fire home! Man City 3-0 West Ham

76' Donnarumma keeps his clean sheet in tact, saving West Ham's effort with his face

82' Highlight from Man City vs West Ham

Line-ups

Man City XI: Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Donnarumma, Haaland, Foden, Reijnders, Matheus Nunes, Nico González, Cherki, Gvardiol, Nico O'Reilly

Subs: Ake, James Trafford, Lewis, Savinho, Abdukodir Khusanov, Charlie Gray, Reigan Heskey, Stephen Mfuni, Divine Mukasa

West Ham XI: Areola, Bowen, Walker-Peters, Paqueta, Kilman, Todibo, Crysencio Summerville, Freddie Potts, Soungoutou Magassa, Mateus Fernandes, Oliver Scarles

Subs: Callum Wilson, Soucek, G. Rodriguez, Mavropanos, Igor, Andrew Irving, Mads Hermansen, Mohamadou Kanté, Ezra Mayers