Manchester City’s Erling Haaland scored an early goal to take the champions provisionally to the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 victory over lowly Southampton at the Etihad on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s team has 23 points after nine games, two ahead of Liverpool, who visit Arsenal on Sunday.
Southampton are still without a win in their first season back in the top flight after a season away and are bottom on one point.
While Haaland scored a stunner in Wednesday’s 5-0 Champions League thrashing of Sparta Prague, he had gone three Premier League games without a goal but ended that drought in the fifth minute on Saturday.
Wrestling with defender Jan Bednarek, the 24-year-old Norwegian international, a master of scoring from difficult angles, stabbed the ball into the roof of the net with a toe while falling onto his backside.
Reuters reports that Southampton had a terrific chance to level right before the break when Cameron Archer was one-on-one with keeper Éderson – with Saints boss Russell Martin already raising his hands in celebration – but the forward smashed his shot against the bar.
