Erling Haaland continues hot streak with decisive double for Manchester City

The phenomenal Erling Haaland took his Manchester City goal tally to 99 as the champions recovered from a first-minute setback to beat Brentford 2-1 on Saturday.

Haaland struck twice and was the width of the post away from becoming the first player in Premier League history to score hat-tricks in three successive games as City recorded their fourth straight win.

Pep Guardiola’s men were stunned by a goal from Yoane Wissa after just 22 seconds but Haaland, who now has nine for the season, turned the game around with a first-half double.

A thread of players to have scored nine goals in the first four games of a @premierleague season:@ErlingHaaland ✨ pic.twitter.com/yqFns4Jszn

— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 14, 2024

The striker had been a doubt for the game following the death of a close family friend but his performance was as good as ever.

The victory underlined City’s strong start to their latest title defence. It may be a difficult time off the field with their long-awaited hearing into alleged breaches of financial rules due to begin next week, but on it all looks in fine order.

Brentford were the last away team to win at Etihad Stadium in November 2022 and, after a sensational start, they may have eyed an unlikely repeat.

The game had barely kicked off when Thomas Frank’s side claimed the lead.

Kristoffer Ajer clipped a cross into the City box and Keane Lewis-Potter headed back across goal. John Stones got into a muddle with Ederson and his sliced clearance looped up for Wissa to head into an empty net.

The setback initially appeared to rattle City and things could quickly have got worse.

Rico Lewis needed to scramble clear after Bryan Mbeumo got behind the defence and City had another let-off when the same