Hammers undone by Haaland treble - but Man City have to repel spirited second half showing from the Irons

West Ham (1) 1 DIas og 19

Manchester City (1) 3 Haaland 10, 30, 83

West Ham fell to a second successive league home defeat but will surely have taken plenty of positives from a game in which they occasionally threatened to knock an irresistible City off their stride.

They stayed within touching distance despite taking a fearful first-half battering from the rampant champions - a half in which Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland in particular decided to showcase their considerable talents.

Haaland bagged himself yet another hat-trick - having got one against Ipswich only last weekend - and now has 70 goals in 69 Premier League games for City. It's hard for most opponents to live with stats like that and it's to the Hammers' credit that they stayed in the hunt until the third five minutes from time.

De Bruyne looked like he was back to his best, sending in a beautifully wicked curler early on that Alphone Areola somehow pawed away and then crashed a shot against an upright after another flowing attack. He later clipped the roof of the net with a free-kick.

And yet, the puncher's chance was always going to be there as far as the Hammers were concerned, and after being so close to going 2-0 down, Jarrod Bowen's low cross was turned into his own net by Ruben Dias to cancel out Haaland's 10th minute⁷ opener to lift home spirits.

Bowen had already stung the palms of Ederson to suggest the one-sided nature of the possession might not be mirrored by the scoreline.

The Irons should have been a goal down when Haaland missed a sitter of a header but the Norwegian made no mistake after David Silva had picked the pocket of a dawdling Lucas Paqueta to set up the striker and he was never going to miss this time.

Soon after the Hammers equaliser, Haaland was at it again, thumping in a beautiful shot from the edge of the area after being set up by Rico Lewis.

The mystery was that it was still 2-1 at the interval. Lewis really ought to have put daylight between City and United when Haaland returned the compliment to slip the midfielder through. A blaze over the bar was a poor return for such slickness.

As if to show that the margins remained slender, whatever the evidence of our own eyes, Mo Kudus came within a whisker of making it 2-2 after a blistering counter attack involving Bowen on the right. His shot cannoned back off an upright so far that it was a wonder it didn't set up City for a new attack.

The Hammers were a vastly improved outfit after the break. They caused problems. Their pace on the break was always impressive. But their efforts did not quite bear fruit and Haaland, almost inevitably, had the last word - charging onto a cleverly weighted pass from Matheus Nunes before dinking half-time sub Lukasz Fabianski.

He might even have made it four at the death when Fabianski had to get down at his near post after another of those blistering runs, picked out this time by the returning Ilkay Gundogan.

Julen Lopetegui must be pleased his side were able to create danger. At the last, Crysencio Summerville forced Ederson into a fingertip save. It was that kind of game.

The Irons are by no means alone in having found Man City a bit of a pain in recent seasons. They have not beaten the champions since 2015 - a run of 18 games which has produced only three draws to break up the sorry sequences of losses.

City lost a League Cup tie on penalties at the London Stadium a couple of seasons ago but haven't lost in east London in the league since October 2014. City are also unbeaten in 22 Premier League matches in 2024, so the outcome was no surprise. But the Hammers did give it a go, to warm the hearts of departing fans.

There is one sorry footnote though. The Irons have now equalled their longest run against any opponent in the top flight without victory - the 18 against City matching the 18 against Liverpool between 1983 and 1994. That is some sign of the dominance enjoyed by Pep's lot these days.

Hammers: (4-2-3-1) Areola (Fabianski h/t) - Wan-Bissaka, Kilman, Mavropanos, Emerson (Coufal 71) - Alvarez (Soucek 77), Rodriguez - Bowen (Summerville 86), Lucas Paqueta, Kudus - Antonio (Fullkrug 71)

City: (3-2-4-1) Ederson - Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol (Walker 87) - Lewis, Kovacic - Grealish (Nunes 72), Silva. De Bruyne (Ake 87), Doku (Gundogan 68) - Haaland