Pep Guardiola can utilise Erling Haaland to continue Man City's happy new habit

Manchester City have enjoyed a solid start to the new Premier League season.

Unbeaten in their opening six league outings, a points haul of 14 is certainly not to be sniffed at, especially when you consider the early season struggles they endured in each of the two previous campaigns. That Pep Guardiola's side still managed to win the title in both paints a rather positive picture when it comes to their hopes of securing a third consecutive crown.

The arrival of Erling Haaland this summer has led to a slight shift in how City play; last season everything was about control and patience, whereas so far this season City have tended to attack in a more direct way. Guardiola has not quite found the right balance between the two — as seen in the 3-3 draw with Newcastle last month — but when he does, City could be more dangerous than ever before.

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One thing that that City have done in some of their games this season — and has made potentially tricky games easy for them — is score early. While scoring early on in games is nothing new for City, it's now even easier for them to do so with Haaland leading the attacking.

In seven matches in all competitions so far this season, City have scored five goals within the opening 25 minutes. Haaland has scored three of them and Ilkay Gundogan the other two — although his strikes came about thanks in part to the on and off the ball work of Haaland.

Four of those goals came across three games, in each of which City blew their opponents out of the water.

Gundogan's 19th minute opener against Bournemouth set City up for a 4-0 win, Haaland's 12th minute strike kicked off a 6-0 rout of Nottingham