Manchester Metropolis bought the job finished towards West Ham United to go into Christmas simply two factors behind leaders Arsenal within the Premier League.
An Erling Haaland brace both facet of Tijjani Reijnders’s first objective on the Etihad Stadium gave Metropolis a cushty margin that their first half efficiency deserved.
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However Pep Guardiola was comparatively scathing in his submit match evaluate; he is aware of that there’s extra to come back from these gamers and that they need to go up one other degree in the event that they’re to problem for trophies this season.
Listed here are three issues we realized as Metropolis overcame the Hammers:
Haaland is again to being inevitable
The place would Metropolis be with out Haaland this season?
Sure, they’re a lot much less reliant on his targets now however the 25-year-old is scoring at an astronomical fee and has regained his unstoppable kind after a slight dip.
Since he netted the penalty towards Actual Madrid, he’s scored two braces in two video games, taking the possibilities which can be coming to him and get extra concerned within the sport while trying much less wasteful as well.
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A lot is alleged about Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe, however Haaland is the standout striker in world soccer and is exhibiting that as he ranges the league report by scoring 19 targets earlier than Christmas.
Pep nonetheless has his starvation – and that’s an amazing factor
As he admitted himself, if Guardiola is criticising Bernardo Silva, then he’s positively not had sport.
The final consensus amongst most followers appears to be that Bernardo did have an honest sport, however the Metropolis boss was very sad with how his captain didn’t take care of the ball correctly, notably within the second half.
The efficiency ranges weren’t ok for Guardiola, and he insists that Metropolis must do extra in the event that they need to win trophies this season.
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Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool in 2024 as a consequence of feeling “drained” and even Guardiola himself had related fatigue at Barcelona, his boyhood membership, while he nonetheless had Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and co. working at their greatest.
However now he appears to be as hungry as ever, and with the best successful supervisor this sport has ever seen determined to win titles, it may possibly solely be a constructive factor for Metropolis.
Nunes is one in every of Metropolis’s gamers of the season
Going beneath the radar amongst most soccer followers, however more and more much less so Metropolis followers, is Matheus Nunes.
Issues had been raised in the beginning of the season concerning the suitability of the Portuguese worldwide at taking part in proper again. He isn’t a pure defender, and tends to make errors even in video games the place he’s largely performed properly.
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However within the overwhelming majority of video games this season, Nunes has been completely incredible. The 27-year-old has even been trusted to play in his extra pure place of midfield within the final two video games, shifting inside late on in video games and impressing within the holding position when the sport is completed and dusted.
It initially gave the impression to be tough to interchange Abdukodir Khusanov when he went off injured towards Arsenal. Since then, Khusanov has returned and Nunes has saved his house within the group, impressing defensively and positively providing extra of an attacking menace than the Uzbekistan defender.
In opposition to West Ham he was wonderful once more, and hopefully he’ll stay match and in kind for the remainder of the season.