Haaland hat-trick helps City cruise past Fulham 5-1

MANCHESTER : Erling Haaland netted a second-half hat-trick as pacesetters Manchester City maintained their 100 per cent record in the Premier League with a 5-1 thrashing of Fulham on Saturday.

Julian Alvarez and Nathan Ake opened the scoring for the champions, who have beaten Fulham in their last 15 league meetings and now top the table with a perfect 12 points from four games. Fulham, who scored an early equaliser through Tim Ream before being overrun, have four points from their four games.

Haaland, who broke several scoring records last season, added another on Saturday, becoming the fastest player to reach 50 goal involvements, with 42 goals and nine assists in just 39 Premier League appearances.

The most controversial moment of the game was Ake's goal seconds before halftime, which appeared set to be ruled out as Manuel Akanji was standing in an offside position in front of Fulham keeper Bernd Leno and jumped over the ball on its way into the net. But VAR ruled that the goal was valid.