Haaland propels Man Metropolis to prime with double towards West Ham

Manchester Metropolis climbed again to the highest ​of the desk with a ruthless 3-0 dismantling of West ‌Ham United on Saturday, as Erling Haaland bagged a ​double to prime Cristiano Ronaldo’s Premier League objectives tally in lower than half the time.

Pep Guardiola’s males have 37 factors after 17 video games, whereas Arsenal, with 36 factors, might reclaim prime spot after they play at Everton in a while Saturday. West Ham stay within the hazard zone in 18th on 13 factors.

Metropolis stamped their authority early on, ​and Haaland struck within the fifth minute when his first ⁠shot from Phil Foden’s cross was parried by Alphonse Areola. He made no mistake together with his second likelihood, firing house previous the goalkeeper.

Tijjani Reijnders doubled Metropolis’s lead within the ​thirty eighth minute after Rayan Cherki ⁠intercepted the ball within the Hammers’ finish, lower round a defender and performed the ball to Haaland. The Norwegian handed to Reijinders who fired into the roof of the online.

Haaland accomplished his double ‌within the 69th with a straightforward tap-in after some woeful ‌West Ham defending for his 104th league aim for Metropolis when West Ham’s Jean-Clair Tobido tried to clear the ‍ball however it bounced off him and to the ft of Haaland.

The 22-year-old Haaland cruised previous Ronaldo’s mark of 103 objectives in 236 appearances ‍in England’s prime flight, reaching 104 in simply 114 video games. He has 149 objectives for Metropolis throughout all competitions.

Haaland, who squandered a number of different possibilities together with a shot into the facet netting and a header that breezed simply over the bar, regarded decided to finish a hat-trick and had the Etihad Stadium followers on their ft deep in damage time when he was one-on-one with Areola earlier than sending his shot simply extensive of ⁠the far put up.

Whereas West Ham, who’ve gone six video games with out a win, have been penned in their very own half ​earlier than the break, they have been brighter after it, and Metropolis keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma ⁠was lastly pressed into motion with an excellent double save early within the second half, first stopping a shot from Crysencio Summerville after which one from Freddie Potts.

The match was Metropolis’s final of 2025 on the Etihad, and their sixteenth win towards ⁠West Ham at their house stadium of their final 17 conferences.