He is the destroyer of dreams (unless the dreams are Manchester City’s), and Erling Haaland made absolutely stone-cold certain that West Ham would suffer defeat on their own turf on Saturday.
The Hammers’ hunt for a Premier League win over Manchester City will stretch now to a decade of waiting and trying and lamenting when it fails to happen. Their last came in 2015, no fewer than 19 league meetings ago.
But ruthless hat-tricks aside — and it’s an admittedly sizeable caveat when Haaland’s treble won City this match — the performance Julen Lopetegui’s men delivered at the London Stadium was one that should offer hope for their ability to trouble the Premier League’s big boys this season.
In possession just 31 per cent of the time, they found themselves under the cosh surprisingly little, particularly after the break when City’s level dropped from the first half.
Before the interval, Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish were combining nicely. West Ham broke City’s continuity up after the interval.
Jarrod Bowen’s goals will no doubt come this season, but it will have pleased Lopetegui that his positive run at goal was paramount to West Ham’s equaliser, with the newly-appointed captain crossing, and Ruben Dias converting past his own goalkeeper.
Lopetegui made a brave decision before the match in dropping Tomas Soucek, but it proved dividends as Edson Alvarez came in and offered tough tackling and composed passing, matching the attributes offered by summer signing Guido Rodriguez, who is already becoming a key player.
"Did you ever doubt him" 😲
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 31, 2024
Back-to-back hat-tricks for Erling Haaland 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Nawu7r9ceS
Mohammed Kudus was electric whenever City afforded him more than a split-second on the ball, and his leading role in one rapid counter-attack gave Hammers fans their biggest ‘what if’ moment of an evening that brought defeat but no humbling or hammering.
Kudus received with his back to goal midway through his half and turned cutely to take De Bruyne out the game. Space opened up in front of him once he had then outmuscled Jeremy Doku. A one-two with Bowen — so often in sync with the Ghanaian these days — cultivated a goalscoring chance. Kudus struck the post. So close to a blinding goal on the break but not to be.
And then Crysencio Summerville was denied a stellar first goal for West Ham when his curled effort was clawed agonisingly past the post by Ederson.
These were the clearest chances for either side of a rather even second half, besides the one-on-one when Mathues Nunes put Haaland through to wrap things up.
The Hammers had done all they could; against the best teams, even that is sometimes not enough. But the points, and the wins, will come.
