Kevin De Bruyne expects both himself and Manchester City to improve after putting a difficult first game of the season behind them.
City had to endure a few tricky spells at the London Stadium, but confounded West Ham with an innovative strategy and saw their new No.9 find space in the box to earn and then convert a penalty to give them a lead. In the second half, City got a glimpse of a special partnership as De Bruyne broke the line to feed Haaland, who slotted home his second effortlessly.
De Bruyne has enjoyed a restful summer with no major international tournament, and was happy to pick up an assist and a win. Having dragged the Blues over the line in the Premier League with astounding consistency in the second half of last season season, it can only bode well for City that the Belgian has picked up where he left off.
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"I feel alright!" he said with a smile. "I had a good break, I'm coming back slowly and know it can still be better but I'm not worried. I'm trying to improve physically and mentally and I feel good.
"It's always tough to come here and we played well for the first game. We made some mistakes but we controlled the game and that is difficult when you come here so it was a good first game."
Haaland enjoyed a terrific Premier League debut after a glaring miss towards the end of the Community Shield defeat to Liverpool last week saw him mocked online and his suitability for this City team questioned. De Bruyne gave those takes as short shrift, as Guardiola did after the West Ham game — even if he suggested there may have been a few jokes about it at the training ground this week.
"We don't care, there will be mistakes and sometimes there will be jokes but we're working hard and even if he didn't score last week he was in four or five positions where you need to be," he said. "He has enough confidence to score a goal.
"We don't care about the criticism. You guys can say whatever you want. If he doesn't score in one game he's going to be bad, if he scores two like today he's going to be great. This is how the world works and he will be alright.
"He is there to score goals and to help the team and he did that today but I'm not putting too much pressure on him. I know there's a lot of hype around him and obviously to start this way is good for him.
"Whoever is going to play up front, whether it is Erling or Julian [Alvarez], I'm going to try and find them. It's not at 100 per cent yet but we've only been playing a couple of games. They will make the runs and if I find them they will score goals."
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