Manchester City battled their way back to the Premier League summit as Erling Haaland netted the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Southampton at the Etihad Stadium.
Haaland was on target early on with a clinical finish from inside the area, though City were unusually profligate in front of goal for the rest of Saturday’s contest.
Cameron Archer missed the visitors’ best chance with an effort that struck the woodwork just before the interval.
Haaland passed up two fantastic chances to make the scoreline more comfortable after the break, though City ultimately got the job done to move top ahead of Sunday’s clash between Arsenal and Liverpool.
Southampton, meanwhile, are bottom of the pile, with just one point from their opening nine games.
Data Debrief: Haaland on target, but not at his best
Haaland scored his 74th Premier League goal, 32 more than any other player since he joined the division in 2022. Today was just his third strike in a 1-0 victory, however.
But the Norwegian should have had more. He ended the contest having had eight shots, though only four were on target, contributing a whopping expected goals (xG) tally of 2.16 to City's 2.73 total.
Pep Guardiola's side extended their unbeaten Premier League run to 32 games, with 28 of those coming in 2024 – only Chelsea in 2005 (29) have had a longer unbeaten run from the start of a calendar year in the competition’s history.
For Southampton, meanwhile, they are now winless in their last 22 Premier League games (D5 L17), the outright third longest such run in the competition’s history after Derby County (32 in 2007-08) and Sunderland (26 between 2002 and 2005).
Lovebug2
1
Haaland had one goal and 2 balls cleared off the line.That'snot bad at all. Match was won. let's wait for Mbappe
Lovebug2
1
Still he is better than Vinicious who did not score in a 4:0 whipping. Better than Bellingham Better than Mbappe or all of the three put together
Dante101
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Haaland not as alert as his 1st season. bro mind wondering
veecmpsuz
2
he could’ve had five! one thing is he hasn’t been hitting the corners with his headers. they’re either missing or at the keeper. still incredible athleticism that he gets so many chances though. for a guy with 14 goals in 13 games it can’t be that bad lol
Besdlstu
0
City is struggling, It's on the way to where it belongs
Lennor225
0
Man city is going to end
TopCentral
1
I guess without KDB man city creativity drops a lot, Now we Need WIRTZ or MUSIALA to Replace Him