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MANCHESTER: Manchester City’s Erling Haaland kept up his torrid scoring pace with two goals in five second-half minutes on Saturday to lift City provisionally top of the table with a 2-0 Premier League victory over Everton.
Pep Guardiola’s men have 16 points after eight games, before Arsenal and Liverpool, now second and third respectively, play their games this weekend. Everton dropped to 10th on 11 points.
The 25-year-old Haaland — who scored in an 11th consecutive game for club and country for a season total of 23 goals — broke the deadlock in the 58th minute when he leapt to head home Nico O’Reilly’s cross from the left.
The Norwegian doubled City’s lead five minutes later when he latched onto Savinho’s cross and struck a blistering left-foot shot from the middle of the box that was slightly deflected by Everton’s James Tarkowski past goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Haaland was hungry to complete a hat-trick, with three brilliant chances in the dying minutes, with Pickford racing out to save two of them with his legs. Haaland took the ball around Pickford on the third, but his looping shot from an impossibly tight angle dropped wide of the net.
Haaland shook his head in frustration, while the crowd chanted “Haaland! Haaland!” for his efforts.
City’s Phil Foden hailed Haaland for breaking the deadlock, calling the moment “very important.”
“We know he’s got that quality to time his runs to perfection and be in the right position. If they mark him out of the game he is still capable of scoring and we know he only needs one chance to score.
“He remained very patient, there wasn’t a lot of space for him today. And as you can see he is always there for us at the right times, that is the sign of a world class striker.”
There was no emotional homecoming for Everton winger Jack Grealish, who was ineligible to face his parent club. A TV camera showed Grealish at the game, but the absence of the league’s joint assist leader was a gaping hole for David Moyes’ team.
City, who thoroughly dominated in the second half, had 19 shots to Everton’s five, and seven on target to the visitors’ one.
Everton squandered a handful of chances. Early in the game Iliman Ndiaye raced down the right side before sending a cross to Beto who slid to just get his foot on the ball but poked it wide.
City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma tipped a long shot from Ndiaye over the bar later in the first half.

LONDON: Marc Guehi has told Crystal Palace he will not sign a new deal at the club, manager Oliver Glasner has said.
The England center-back almost joined Liverpool on transfer deadline day last month, but Palace pulled the plug at the last minute, missing out on a sizeable fee.
Glasner revealed the defender, in the final 12 months of his contract, has already informed the club this will be his final season at Selhurst Park.
“The club wanted (him to stay). They offered Marc a new contract but he said, ‘No, I want to make something different’, and that’s normal,” he said.
“And for us, it’s how we can deal with this situation. (What) is the best way to get this next step done? And that’s all about how we are talking together.”
Guehi has played 167 times for Palace since he joined from Chelsea in 2021 and captained the club to FA Cup success in May. He has won 26 England caps.
The 25-year-old could be sold in January or leave on a free at the end of the season.
Guehi, who has been ever-present for Palace this season, can agree a pre-contract with foreign clubs from January 1.
Palace would reportedly like to sell him in January and it is understood that Liverpool could face competition from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
The London club, who were sixth in the Premier League before the weekend fixtures after an impressive start to the season, host high-flying Bournemouth on Saturday.