Haaland completes a superb hat-trick to lead City over Forest.

Manchester City defeated Nottingham Forest 6-0 at the Etihad Stadium thanks to a beautiful hat-trick by Erling Haaland in the first 38 minutes of play.

After scoring two early close-range goals to put City up 2-0, Haaland scored on John Stones’ header to give him nine goals in his first five Premier League games, a new record for the league.

Later, Joao Cancelo added to City’s advantage with a brilliant long-range shot, and Julian Alvarez scored twice on his debut to open his Premier League account.

The commanding victory helped Pep Guardiola’s team maintain their perfect start to the new campaign and sent a chilling message to any potential rivals since the champions are now playing at full strength.

Six minutes in, Dean Henderson made a quick save to stop Alvarez, but he was fixed to the spot when Haaland tucked Phil Foden’s deflected cross inside the near post to give City a lead.

Five minutes later, Renan Lodi, who had been left unmarked, headed into the side netting. The visitors were forced to pay for that error when Haaland, who had excellent one-two-one play with Foden, rolled into an empty goal.

As halftime drew near, the Norwegian put the game out of reach by scoring his ninth goal of the year by capitalising on some terrible Forest goaltending to head in a deep free-kick.

After the break, City continued where they left off as Cancelo blasted a shot from the outside of the box into the top-left corner, and Alvarez scored his first Premier League goal on his league debut by scoring low across Henderson in a one-on-one situation.

After Haaland was replaced to a standing ovation, Alvarez scored his second late in the game by bringing down a loose ball and volleying it into the top-left corner to polish the score.

Miniechat

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