Manchester City got the job done against West Ham United to head into Christmas just two points behind leaders Arsenal in the Premier League.
An Erling Haaland brace either side of Tijjani Reijnders’s first
goal at the Etihad Stadium gave City a comfortable margin that their first half performance deserved.
But Pep Guardiola was relatively scathing in his post match review; he knows that there’s more to come from these players and that they must go up another level if they’re to challenge for trophies this season.
Here are three things we learned as City overcame the Hammers:
Haaland is back to being inevitable
Where would City be without Haaland this season?
Yes, they’re much less reliant on his goals now but the 25-year-old is scoring at an astronomical rate and has regained his unstoppable form after a slight dip.
Since he netted the penalty against Real Madrid, he’s scored two braces in two games, taking the chances that are coming to him and get more involved in the game whilst looking less wasteful to boot.
Much is said about Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe, but Haaland is the standout striker in world football and is showing that as he levels the league record by scoring 19 goals before Christmas.
Pep still has his hunger – and that’s a great thing
As he admitted himself, if Guardiola is criticising Bernardo Silva, then he’s definitely not had a good game.
The general consensus amongst most fans seems to be that Bernardo did have a decent game, but the City boss was very unhappy with how his captain failed to look after the ball properly, particularly in the second half.
The performance levels weren’t good enough for Guardiola, and he insists that City have to do more if they want to win trophies this season.
Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool in 2024 due to feeling “tired” and even Guardiola himself had similar fatigue at Barcelona, his boyhood club, whilst he still had Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and co. operating at their best.
But now he seems to be as hungry as ever, and with the greatest winning manager this sport has ever seen desperate to win titles, it can only be a positive thing for City.
Nunes is one of City’s players of the season
Going under the radar amongst most football fans, but increasingly less so City fans, is Matheus Nunes.
Concerns were raised at the start of the season about the suitability of the Portuguese international at playing right back. He isn’t a natural defender, and tends to make mistakes even in games where he’s largely played well.
But in the vast majority of games this season, Nunes has been absolutely fantastic. The 27-year-old has even been trusted to play in his more natural position of midfield in the last two games, shifting inside late on in games and impressing in the holding role when the game is done and dusted.
It initially seemed to be difficult to replace Abdukodir Khusanov when he went off injured against Arsenal. Since then, Khusanov has returned and Nunes has kept his space in the team, impressing defensively and certainly offering more of an attacking threat than the Uzbekistan defender.
Against West Ham he was excellent again, and hopefully he’ll remain fit and in form for the rest of the season.
