Erling Haaland continues impressive debut record with first Manchester City goals

Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring his first goal for Manchester City.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has continued his impressive debut record by netting a brace on his Premier League bow to seal a 2-0 win for the champions at West Ham on Sunday.

Haaland was criticised and even ridiculed on social media after a disappointing display in the Community Shield defeat to Liverpool last weekend, which included a terrible miss in added time, but the 22-year-old bounced back at the London Stadium.

The Norwegian striker started alongside Jack Grealish and Phil Foden in attack and won a penalty for Pep Guardiola's side when he was brought down by Alphonse Areola.

He quickly grabbed the ball and took responsibility, beating the French goalkeeper - who had only been on the pitch for a short time after replacing the injured Lukasz Fabianski - with a powerful finish low into the corner after 36 minutes.

Haaland netted on his Bundesliga debut for Borussia Dortmund (bagging a hat-trick off the bench in a 5-3 win over Augsburg) and also scored on his Champions League bow (for RB Salzburg versus Genk).

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And the 22-year-old was on target from open play after 65 minutes against West Ham after he latched onto a beautiful defence-splitting pass from Kevin De Bruyne and kept his cool to slot a trademark clinical finish past Areola with his left foot from just inside the box.

The former Dortmund striker also netted on his first appearances in the Norwegian Cup, the DFB-Pokal and the DFL-Supercup, according to ESPN.

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Weekend editor

Ben Hayward is Weekend Editor for FourFourTwo. A European football writer with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa América - and has spent much of that time in Spain. He currently divides his time between Barcelona and London.