Erling Haaland nets hattrick as City rally to beat Palace

Erling Haaland celebrates his third goal against Crystal Palace on Saturday. It ended 4-2 in favor of the champions. (Photo credit: Sky Spor...

Erling Haaland celebrates his third goal against Crystal Palace on Saturday. It ended 4-2 in favor of the champions. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

Manchester City had to do it the hard way again on Saturday as they welcomed Crystal Palace to the Etihad Stadium for their game week four engagement in the premier league.

It’s a worst kept secret that their title defense will be a lot harder this time but they didn’t see the Eagles’ performance coming. Patrick Vieira didn’t have the luxury of Wilfred Zaha as the winger got injured in training in midweek and Eberechi Eze had to step up as the main man.

City fell behind quite early through an unfortunate own goal by John Stones. Replays showed Jordan Ayew could have been sent off for an elbow on Joao Cancelo but VAR reviewed and saw nothing doing; City went two behind not long after.

Another Eze corner met Aaronson in the box and Ederson was soon throwing the ball out of his net again. It was the second successive game that City had to come from behind to win a game after the madness at Newcastle.

City took things personal in the second half. Bernardo Silva halved the deficit albeit off a deflection early in the second half before Erling Haaland took laws into his own hand to equalize and then add another two for his first hattrick in City colors.

Haaland is now the leading scorer in the league with six goals in four games and in pole position for the golden boot at the first time of asking. City won 4-2 and moved back to second spot on the log behind Arsenal who beat Fulham late on Saturday to stay on top.