INSIDE 36 minutes of his Premier League debut, Erling Haaland had wiped out one West Ham goalkeeper and won a penalty off a second one. <br /><br />At that point, Darren Randolph - named by the ever-cautious David Moyes as second substitute goalkeeper - must have been trembling on the Hammers bench, wondering what Manchester City’s Norwegian goal machine had in store for him. <br /><br />It didn’t come to that but after converting the first-half penalty he had won himself, Haaland added a clinical second past Alphonse Areola, who had replaced Lukasz Fabianski - injured in an accidental collision with the 6ft 5in Centre-forward. <br /><br />Perhaps, in this age of nine Premier League subs, all opposition managers will opt for Moyes’ belt-and-braces approach to combat the threat of Haaland. <br /><br />Haaland, the £51million signing from Borussia Dortmund, missed a glaring headed chance for a debut hat-trick before he was replaced 12 minutes from time but he had done more than enough to announce himself after a difficult Community Shield last weekend. <br /><br />Pep Guardiola’s champions, chasing a third straight title and a fifth in six seasons, are already two points clear of their only genuine title rivals Liverpool. <br /><br />This was a contest which often resembled an attack-versus-defence training drill - City patiently keeping possession, West Ham sitting deep and showing little ambition. <br /><br />The London Stadium was in tumbleweed silence for long stretches, aside from the small section of City fans, who taunted Roy Keane - here as a Sky pundit - with songs about Erling’s dad Alfie. <br /><br />Keane had infamously damaged Haaland’s knee ligaments with a deliberate foul in a Manchester derby. <br /><br />Haaland Senior was also at the London Stadium, like his assailant. Had they met, it would have been a feistier scrap than the actual football match. <br /><br />For Haaland junior, this was the start of the elite phase of a carefully-plotted career trajectory which had taken him from his native Norway, to Austria, to Borussia Dortmund and finally to the Premier League champions. <br /><br />And it was a thoroughly decent start, suggesting it will not take Guardiola’s men long to adjust to the presence of a proper No 9, after back-to-back title wins without one. <br /><br />City’s last title win was held up by a 2-2 draw here in May but despite four summer arrivals, there were no new arrivals in Moyes’s starting line-up. <br /><br />Italian Centre-forward Gianluca Scamacca was only deemed fit enough for the bench and Max Cornet, West Ham’s latest signing from Burnley, was introduced to the crowd pre-match.<br /><br />West Ham actually had a decent first five minutes. <br /><br />Joao Cancelo - who’d seized Raheem Sterling’s No 7 shirt as a recognition of his status as a playmaking full-back - tried to play a Hollywood pass across his own penalty area and invited the pressure. <br /><br />The Hammers forced a corner, from which Ruben Dias have his keeper Ederson a black eye as City cleared. Then Pablo Fornals centered and Michail Antonio glanced a header just over.<br /><br />But then City settle
