The Premier League debut of Erling Braut Haaland couldn’t have gone any better.
After a lacklustre performance in the Community Shield against Liverpool, which included a terrible miss in stoppage time, the Norwegian made his English debut against West Ham United.
Haaland scored both goals for Manchester City in a 2-0 victory at the London Stadium.
After being upended in the box by West Ham keeper Alphonse Areola, the former Borussia Dortmund striker scored from the penalty spot in the first half.
Following the half-time break, Haaland made it 2-0 by latching onto an inch-perfect pass from Kevin De Bruyne and coolly slotting the ball into the corner of the net.
West Ham simply couldn’t deal with City’s new captain. Haaland’s pace, strength, and ability to find space in the final third were simply too much for Kurt Zouma and Ben Johnson.
Premier League defenders, good luck stopping him in 2022/23.
Haaland’s debut will be remembered as one of the best in the English Premier League since it was rebranded 30 years ago.
What’s more, guess what? There is also a way to improve on it.
Peter Drury, please take your place.
For American broadcaster NBC, the greatest commentator on the planet narrated Haaland’s magical debut against West Ham, and a video of some of his linguistic genius from the match has now gone viral on Twitter.
Take a look at the video…
Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic.
Isn’t it a shame Drury isn’t the go-to man for Premier League commentary on Sky Sports or BT Sport? He’s just ridiculously good at his job.
Haaland and the rest of his City teammates will now turn their attention to the team’s first home match of the 2022/23 season, which takes place on Saturday afternoon.
The current Premier League champions will host newly-promoted Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium, fresh off a 2-0 home victory over Aston Villa last Saturday.
City will still be expected to win comfortably, and Haaland and De Bruyne will almost certainly wreak havoc – as they will for the majority of the season.
