Man City fans' new chant for Erling Haaland shows he has silenced final doubts

When Manchester City needed their prolific striker to be prolific, Erling Haaland duly obliged to turn an ugly afternoon into a truly memorable one. After missing a good header in the first half and being culpable for Crystal Palace's second goal, Haaland's second-half hat-trick was everything City have waited for.

He's scored close-range goals, penalties and a one-on-one, but was yet to score a truly impressive individual goal using his strength. When he pushed Joel Ward to the floor, held off Joachim Andersen and finished to kill this game with his hat-trick goal, he firmly announced himself to the Premier League. The fans turned their popular 'Yaya-Kolo Toure' chant into an 'Alfie-Erling' version, confirming his own chant to cap a landmark afternoon.

Palace's opener was a particularly avoidable goal. Ederson fumbled a ball on the edge of his box, Joao Cancelo tripped Jordan Ayew, and the resulting free-kick hit two City players before John Stones knee-ed it into his own goal. The second was a simple header from Joachim Andersen from a corner as Erling Haaland failed to follow his man.

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City made defending set pieces a strength of theirs last season, even with Guardiola regularly praising his side when they concede as few corners and free kicks as possible. Maybe despite their improvements, he still knew there is a weakness in the air from dead balls - their first obvious weakness they've allowed to be exposed in this year's title race.

Just like last week at Newcastle, where City were under-par but rescued by small moments of class, City recovered another two-goal deficit thanks to a solo effort from Bernardo Silva, albeit deflected in, before a fine Phil Foden cross and