Manchester City continued their unbeaten opening to the Premier League campaign on Friday, completing a comfortable 4-1 victory over Crystal Palace. Erling Haaland, last season’s top scorer in the competition, began the scoring after 17 minutes when he scored a precise header.
The visiting side doubled their advantage shortly after the break as French midfielder Rayan Cherki moved through a crowd of defenders inside the box and slotted the ball into the net.
Crystal Palace pulled one back almost straight away when Yeremy Pino’s brilliant free-kick crashed off the crossbar and bounced into the net via goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. However, City’s two-goal cushion was quickly restored just two minutes later when Cherki’s effort from the edge of the area took a deflection to wrong-foot Dean Henderson, giving the Frenchman his first Premier League brace. Haaland sealed the 4-1 triumph six minutes from time with a clinical left-footed finish.
Cherki and Wharton reflect on performances
Despite claiming his first brace in the league, Rayan Cherki described his display as “so-so,” explaining that the threat of being substituted spurred his second-half surge.
“When I see Enzo Maresca wanted to change me I didn’t like that, so I had to show him I wanted to play and wanted to score,” Cherki said of the recently appointed coach.
“With Pep Guardiola we had a big history. Now we have started another story. We have to prove that every week, and we are here for that.” he added.
The win puts Manchester City top of the table with six points from their opening two matches. Meanwhile, Crystal Palace remain without a point. Midfielder Adam Wharton noted that the squad is still getting used to manager Pierre Sage, who assumed control in June.
“I thought we had good moments but we didn’t test their keeper enough, like we should have, It is a disappointing result.” Wharton said.
“We are trying to work every day and implement the gaffer’s way of playing in and out of possession. I think we improved from last week and were in the game for longer. We need to keep at it and next week hopefully we’ll be even better.” he added
