Haaland strikes on 100th appearance as City kick off Premier League in style | OneFootball

Erling Haaland scored our first goal of the Premier League season for the third year in a row before Mateo Kovacic struck a killer second as City kicked off our title defence with a 2-0 victory at Chelsea.

The striker was making his 100th appearance for the Club and took just 18 minutes to claim a remarkable 91st goal as he starts his third season.

It was a typically ruthless finish as he coolly clipped the ball past the onrushing Roberto Sanchez as we began our challenge for a record-extending fifth successive crown with three points.

Both sides had goals ruled out before Kovacic’s thunderous strike against his former Club wrapped up the victory in style.

WHAT HAPPENED

With England and Spain playing in the European Championship final just over five weeks ago, Guardiola decided against throwing City’s four representatives straight back in for the Premier League kick-off.

Kyle Walker, John Stones and Phil Foden were on the bench while Rodrigo was not fully fit and the injury to Oscar Bobb meant the Norwegian was unavailable after starring in our pre-season win over Chelsea in the United States.

Summer signing Savinho went into the line-up for his first City start and was quickly into the action, threading a ball through to Bernardo Silva inside five minutes but his shot was deflected off-target.

The Brazilian started on the left with Jeremy Doku switching to the right flank and he too was soon involved, battling with Marc Cucurella, cutting inside onto his left and firing wide.

Their flexibility meant they were able to swap wings and it was from the Belgian cutting in off the opposite side that led to City’s opener.

His low ball inside was touched on by Bernardo Silva and Haaland dug the ball out of his feet to clip the ball past Sanchez, with the goal standing after a VAR check for offside.

Savinho soon followed suit, drifting in from the right to tee up Kevin De Bruyne, whose fierce shot flashed past Sanchez’s post.

Our new number 26 was heavily involved in the first half, skipping past Cucurella to set up Mateo Kovacic whose shot was blocked, while a challenge on Enzo Fernandez drew Chelsea shouts for a penalty.

However, he also suffered a knock during a quick break and was replaced at half-time by current Premier League Player of the Season Foden for his first minutes of the campaign.

Fellow Brazilian Ederson was having a relatively quiet afternoon, with his first meaningful save, from former Academy player Cole Palmer, just before the break, with Nicolas Jackson offside when he turned in the loose ball.

And City continued to dominate after the restart with Haaland once again combining with Bernardo but this time his effort was pushed clear by Sanchez.

Chelsea’s latest signing Pedro Neto came on just before the hour to try to stir the home side and Rico Lewis had to be alert to stop a far post cross from reaching him inside 60 seconds.

The Portuguese added some punch to the home side and his cross was diverted goalbounds by Fernandez before the ball eventually reached Jackson, whose instinctive volley was superbly kept out by Ederson.

Guardiola’s former assistant Enzo Maresca made two more changes to try to rescue the game shortly after Lewis had the ball in the back of the net, but the goal was rightly ruled out for a foul by Haaland in the build-up.

But City remained dangerous with De Bruyne shooting narrowly wide from the edge of the box as we took control of the game to take the sting out of the home side’s threat.

And it was Kovacic who secured there was no late onslaught, killing the game with an excellent 20-yard hit that Sanchez could only divert onto the post before it trickled over the line.

TEAMS

CHELSEA: Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella (Veiga 80), Lavia (Dewsbury-Hall 67), Caicedo, Fernandez, Palmer, Nkunku (Neto 59), Jackson (Guiu 67)

Subs not used: Jorgensen, Badiashile, Adarabioyo, Madueke, Mudryk

CITY: Ederson, Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Doku, Savinho (Foden 46), Haaland

Subs not used: Ortega Moreno, Walker, Stones, Ake, Grealish, Nunes, O’Reilly, McAtee

MAN OF THE MATCH

Rodrigo has big boots to fill with the Spanish midfielder cementing his place as a Ballon d'Or contender with his country's triumph at EURO 2024 in the summer.

Guardiola wanted to give all his players a rest after another long season and with the midfielder not in the matchday squad, it was Kovacic who took on his holding role superbly.

There was plenty of big names in the middle of the park on both sides and he brilliantly kept City ticking, reading the game and quashing any home threat.

And he capped a marvellous performance with a wonderful strike that sealed all three points.

RICO RULES

With his footballing intelligence and great experience all ready, it’s easy to forget that Rico Lewis is still only 19.

The England international was fantastic in defence, effectively extinguishing the big threat from the menacing Christopher Nkunku.

When the Chelsea winger couldn’t find a way through, it was the turn of Neto, who was so impressive when Wolves beat City early at the start of last season but again Lewis was alert to his danger.

If that wasn’t enough, he was quick to join in attacks, raiding down the right flank or moving into midfield and Guardiola was full of praise for his performance at full-time.

PEP GUARDIOLA REACTION

"I didn't expect it. We are away from our best so three points is the good news. The bad news is we have 65 games ahead of us.

"We have an advantage, it's our ninth season together so we know each other well. Of course there are mistakes you have to improve but we talked, the difference in being champions was our body language, how did we behave?

"It's the bad moments in the season and in the games that define the big teams. For me, it is an honour to be in charge of these guys. I'm so fortunate, I could not say more.

"There is a plan, defensive, offensive. But afterwards it's how we celebrate the good moments and come back from the bad moments.

"That's what defines these teams and no one talks about it. For a while we could never win at Stamford Bridge. This is a big step."

HAALAND REACTION

"Three points and a perfect start.

"The first game is always hard for everyone, it doesn’t matter if you have a pre-season or not. I actually had a long pre-season so that’s good. I don’t actually feel perfect because I’m not in the perfect shape, but yeah it’s good to start and to win.

"I don't know if you remember last year, Sanchez had a great save on me, because he always stays a lot on the line, that’s why I took a few extra touches.

"Then he’s rushing out and I knew exactly what to do. I think it was a really good goal. I remember his save for the last year, it’s been irritating me for a long time. So that’s why I took a couple of extra touches. It was a perfect goal. It was a nice goal."

WHAT IT MEANS

It’s far too early to think about the impact on the title race but it’s another impressive start to the season with City having won our opening Premier League match in 13 of the last 14 seasons.

WHAT’S NEXT

City return to the Etihad for the first time in three months when we face newly-promoted Ipswich Town on Saturday, 24 August at 15:00 (UK).

The players will want to carry on the good form from last season when we remained unbeaten at home in all competitions throughout the campaign.

As always, we’ll have full coverage throughout the entire campaign on mancity.com and our official app.