Manchester City 4-2 Crystal Palace: Pep Guardiola’s men come from two goals down beat Eagles

Erling Haaland scored a clinical hat-trick – his first goals at The Etihad Stadium – as Manchester City produced yet another stirring comeback.

Trailing 2-0 for the fourth time in six matches, City rallied once Bernardo Silva pulled a goal back at the start of the second half and then Haaland showed his class with a powerful equalising header before tapping in to give his side the lead and then completing an 19-minute treble.

Palace, who were without Wilfried Zaha, had earlier stung the champions by racing into a comfortable lead inside the opening 21 minutes with a John Stones own goal and header from Joachim Andersen.

Manager Patrick Vieira, a former City player, could also question why his side were denied a goal to make it 3-0 when Odsonne Edouard was penalised for a high boot when Jordan Ayew scored.

Vieria had guided Palace to a shock win at City last season and they made another lightning start to lead after four minutes.

Joao Cancelo fouled Ayew by the touchline and the resulting free-kick from Eberechi Eze caused chaos.

His delivery skimmed the head of a jumping Kevin de Bruyne and took a ricochet off Kyle Walker onto the knee of John Stones who looked helpless as the ball wrongfooted Ederson into the net.

It gave Palace’ five-men defence something to hold onto and they kept City quiet before adding a second goal themselves, again from a set piece after 21 minutes.

Eze was the creator once more with an outswinging corner that allowed Anderson to find space between Haaland, Stones and Kyle Walker and rise alone to power in a header.

The mood inside the Etihad was one of stunned silence and Guardiola had that sinking feeling of having to chase a game again, having clambered back from a similar position to beat Aston Villa to win the title on the final day of last season, and rescue a draw at Newcastle last weekend.

It might have been even worse had Ayew’s goal not been ruled out. The forward tapped in after Ederson’s clearance had been blocked but referee England judged Edouard had raised his foot to stop the City goalkeeper.

Haaland also made his presence felt with a high boot into Andersen’s face but there was no yellow card shown to the striker who was making a genuine challenge for the ball.

There were groans from home fans who hadn’t seen their side have a shot on target in the first half. Guardiola sent out Julian Alvarez and Ilkay Gundogan to warm up at the start of the second half and it had the desired effect Bernardo reducing arrears after 53 minutes.

Rodri’s pinpoint pass found him unmarked on the right edge of the penalty area and the Portuguese star cut inside two defenders before shooting low from 18 yards, the ball taking a deflection off Jeffrey Schlupp.

Alvarez and Gundogan still made their entrance after 51 minutes but from then onwards it was the Haaland show, making light of the midweek trip to Barcelona for a City friendly. 

The equaliser arrived when Alvarez headed the ball down for Phil Foden and from his arcing cross, Haaland got in front of Marc Guehi to connect with an unstoppable header. 

The goal to make it 3-2 came from a flowing City move involving Bernardo and Alvarez, though City got a bit lucky at the end when Stones mishit a shot that landed at Haaland’s feet with inevitable consequences.

The hat-trick goal showed off Haaland’s speed and power. Racing onto a throughball by Gundogan, the Norwegian shrugged off Joel Ward – who fell over in the chase – and opened his body to sidefoot into the corner.

Guardiola roared in joy along the touchline and cleverly took Haaland soon after so he could receive a standing ovation. That’s six goals in four Premier League game for the centre-forward. He will be key to the team’s prospects this season as long as Guardiola’s side don’t give every opponent at two-goal start.