HAALAND THUMPS WINNER AS SLICK MAN CITY MOVE FIFTH
Erling Haaland continued his incredible start to the season as his 18th goal for club and country helped Manchester City complete a dominant 1-0 victory over Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium.
In truth, Pep Guardiola’s slick side should have won by a greater margin, but were worthy winners at full-time with Norway forward Haaland, who has now scored in his past nine outings, giving Sepp van den Berg the slip from Josko Gvardiol’s ball over the top on nine minutes to fire a shot low and hard beyond Caoimhin Kelleher.
Only an excellent stop by the former Liverpool goalkeeper prevented Tijjani Reijnders from adding a second on the volley before half-time after Spain midfielder Rodri was forced to depart the match with what appeared to be a thigh injury on 22 minutes.
A week after stunning Manchester United 3-1 at the same venue, Keith Andrews’ side did very little to trouble City as their chance of becoming only the second side in Premier League history after Spurs in 1996 to defeat the Manchester sides on consecutive weeks rapidly disappeared.
Their only moment of note arrived when some rare slipshod City defending enabled Igor Thiago to get a run on goal early in the second half, but Gianluigi Donnarumma raced from his line to make his only notable save of the match.
City move up to fifth in the standings with 13 points from seven matches, three behind leaders Arsenal, while Brentford are fifth from bottom having picked up seven points from the same number of fixtures.
Guardiola can celebrate this, his 250th win in the Premier League, over the international break before his side host Everton on Saturday, October 18, with Brentford visiting West Ham for a London derby two days later.
