Haaland heads Man City to the top of Premier League with win over Coventry

Erling Haaland score the only goal of Manchester City’s unconvincing home win against newly promoted Coventry City.Manchester City maintained their winning start to the season to move to the top of the Premier League, but Erling Haaland’s solitary strike against newly promoted Coventry City couldn’t hide the nerves in the Etihad Stadium.The Enzo Maresca era has started with three consecutive Premier League wins, but it was a far from perfect performance on Saturday as the hosts needed a pair of late saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma to deny Coventry a first top-flight point for 25 years.Haaland’s header midway through the first half proved decisive for his third goal in as many games this season.Maresca was able to unleash summer signings Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye after their arrivals completed a record outlay by any club of £460 million ($622m) in the transfer market to refresh the City squad after Pep Guardiola’s decade in charge.Fernandez was supposed to start on the bench after completing his £125 million move from Chelsea to match the Premier League transfer record.However, an injury to Nico O’Reilly in the warm-up meant the Argentine was thrust into the starting line up.Ndiaye was also handed his City debut by Maresca alongside Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki in a fearsome front four.Coventry had failed to score in three consecutive defeats to mark their return to the top flight after 25 years.Yet, Frank Lampard’s men could not have come closer to breaking their duck early on thanks to a gift from Donnarumma.The giant Italian miscontrolled a backpass and recovered to clear off his own line with inches to spare.