Manchester City have enjoyed a solid start to the new Premier League season.
Unbeaten in their opening six league outings, a points haul of 14 is certainly not to be sniffed at, especially when you consider the early season struggles they endured in each of the two previous campaigns. That Pep Guardiola's side still managed to win the title in both paints a rather positive picture when it comes to their hopes of securing a third consecutive crown.
The arrival of Erling Haaland this summer has led to a slight shift in how City play; last season everything was about control and patience, whereas so far this season City have tended to attack in a more direct way. Guardiola has not quite found the right balance between the two — as seen in the 3-3 draw with Newcastle last month — but when he does, City could be more dangerous than ever before.
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One thing that that City have done in some of their games this season — and has made potentially tricky games easy for them — is score early. While scoring early on in games is nothing new for City, it's now even easier for them to do so with Haaland leading the attacking.
In seven matches in all competitions so far this season, City have scored five goals within the opening 25 minutes. Haaland has scored three of them and Ilkay Gundogan the other two — although his strikes came about thanks in part to the on and off the ball work of Haaland.
Four of those goals came across three games, in each of which City blew their opponents out of the water.
Gundogan's 19th minute opener against Bournemouth set City up for a 4-0 win, Haaland's 12th minute strike kicked off a 6-0 rout of Nottingham Forest — and a first-half hat-trick for the 22-year-old— and Haaland's 20th minute close-range finish at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan last week was the first of four goals City put past Sevilla.
Scoring early is something that benefits City in a number of ways. It means that opponents, particularly those who had planned to defend deep, are forced to venture forward more in an attempt to get back into the game, creating more space for City to exploit. In Haaland, City have a player whose pace and power is particular effective when running in behind defences.
Conceding an early goal can be demoralizing for opponents, especially when they know that City will only continue to attack them. The longer a team holds out against City the more confident they become, as was seen in the 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.
The obvious outlier is the Newcastle match; Gundogan scored after just five minutes, but Newcastle are one of the few teams in the league equipped to battle back by exploiting City's weaknesses to transitions.
The fact remains though; when City score early it is extremely difficult for opponents to fight back. If the Blues can adopt early goals as a main characteristic of their game then few will be able to stop them.
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