MANCHESTER: Erling Haaland ensured Manchester City continued their perfect start to the Premier League after beating newly promoted Coventry 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium last night.
Haaland’s header midway through the first half separated the two sides, allowing City to claim their third consecutive win of the season.
However, the era of new manager Enzo Maresca has yet to be truly convincing as City had to hold on at the end of the game to keep the three points.
Maresca managed to land Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye after City completed a record spending of 460 million pounds in the transfer market to renew the squad after a decade under Pep Guardiola.
“Nine times out of 10 in a game like this, you’re going to concede at the end of the game.
“But the way we fought together until the end, defending against throw-ins and dead-ball situations, was good.
“Not all victories will come in pretty ways,” Maresca said.
Fernandez, who joined City from Chelsea for a Premier League-record fee of 125 million pounds, was expected to start on the bench before Nico O’Reilly’s injury during the warm-up forced him into the starting line-up.
Ndiaye, meanwhile, made his debut for City and teamed up with Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki in a high-profile attack.
Coventry almost opened the scoring early after a mistake by City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who failed to control a back pass before clearing the ball over the goal line.
Taiwo Awoniyi and Jack Rudoni also wasted the visitors’ best chances before City began to dominate the game.
Cherki’s attempt then hit the post before Fernandez played a role in the winning goal when his pass to Semenyo produced a cross that was finished by Haaland.
City failed to add to their tally after that and had to rely on two saves from Donnarumma to deny attempts from Loum Tchaouna and Ellis Simms.
Despite the defeat, Coventry manager Frank Lampard remains positive about his team’s ability to compete after returning to the top flight after more than two decades.
“What we can’t do is lose confidence. We need to take confidence from today’s match and look ahead because we have two very difficult matches ahead of us.
“Today we can leave the match with pride,” said the former England midfielder.