Haaland scores twice as Man City beat Brentford

Erling Haaland scored twice to take his Premier League tally to nine as Manchester City recovered from conceding after just 23 seconds to maintain their 100% record with victory over Brentford.

Visiting forward Yoane Wissa scored the quickest top-flight goal of the season, heading into an empty net from close range after John Stones and Ederson inexplicably messed up attempting to clear Keane Lewis-Potter’s nod-back.

City were rocking but Haaland steadied the ship, driving home the loose ball after Kevin de Bruyne had been tackled inside the Brentford box.

The Norwegian was playing despite the death of a close family friend in midweek. He scored a second before the break as he outmuscled Ethan Pinnock to reach Ederson’s long punt forward.

It left Haaland tantalisingly close to becoming only the fifth player in English top-flight history – and the first since 1946 – to score three successive hat-tricks.

He came close. Brentford keeper Mark Flekken tipped one goal-bound effort over the bar. Haaland then sent an instinctive first-time strike against the post and was unable to get enough power behind the rebound to take it into the net.

But, despite the crowd clearly willing him on, dad Alfie watching from the stands and manager Pep Guardiola opting not to take him off even though his side start their Champions League campaign with a 2023 final rematch against Inter Milan on Wednesday, this time Haaland had to settle for two.