Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth.
The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games.
Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend.
Photo: Reuters
“Important win,” Haaland said. “It’s good to bounce back after losing a bad away game. It was nice. I tried to contribute for the team by doing my job and we won again.”
Despite a first defeat in 10 games away to Aston Villa the previous weekend, Pep Guardiola remained confident his side can pose a threat to Arsenal in May next year.
There were more encouraging signs for Guardiola as Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden shone in creative roles, while Nico O’Riley became the first City player other than Haaland to score in the Premier League for more than a month.
“Bournemouth are one of the most demanding teams that we have faced,” Guardiola said. “We found our rhythm and today we were better in many aspects.”
Buoyed by their unbeaten streak since losing at Liverpool on the opening night of the season, Bournemouth started brightly.
However, their brave high line was exposed on 17 minutes when Cherki’s header allowed Haaland to gallop clear from inside his own half to slam past Djordje Petrovic.
The visitors leveled eight minutes later when Gianluigi Donnarumma claimed he was impeded as the Italian tried to collect a corner and Tyler Adams thrashed home the loose ball.
Haaland restored City’s advantage before halftime by racing onto another Cherki pass in behind the Bournemouth defense to round Petrovic and slot home his 26th goal for club and country this season.
The 25-year-old also became only the third player to ever score multiple goals in four consecutive Premier League home games after Luis Suarez and Robbie Fowler.
Guardiola has called for greater contributions from his other attacking players to lessen the goalscoring burden on his prolific No. 9.
Still no City player other than Haaland has scored more than once in the league this season, but O’Riley chipped in from fullback to seal the three points.
Foden was the creator this time as O’Riley strode forward before arrowing a low shot into the far corner.
Haaland was denied the chance of a hat-trick as he was replaced by Omar Marmoush eight minutes from time with one eye on facing his former club Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League tomorrow.
“You need to ask Pep for this,” Haaland said. “I think there are probably a few fantasy [football] managers that were not so happy when I got subbed off.”
A double was enough to keep City still within range despite Arsenal’s rampant run of nine consecutive wins and seven straight clean sheets in all competitions.
Earlier, Nuno Espirito Santo celebrated his first win as West Ham United head coach as his spirited team battled from behind to beat Newcastle United 3-1 at the London Stadium.
The Irons remain in the relegation zone after just their second Premier League win of the season, but are now just three points behind 17th-placed Burnley, who they play the the weekend.
Eddie Howe’s Newcastle took the lead courtesy of a fine early strike from Jacob Murphy, but Lucas Paqueta leveled and an own-goal from the unfortunate Sven Botman gave the hosts the advantage at halftime.
The visitors made wholesale changes in the second half, but were blunt in attack and Tomas Soucek made sure of all three points for West Ham in the closing moments.
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