“`html
Erling Haaland headed Manchester City back in front and then powered through Abdoul Ouattara for his second as City survived a frantic finish to beat Ipswich Town 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium, moving six points clear at the top of the Premier League and handing Enzo Maresca a record no manager in the competition’s history has held.
Phil Foden opened the scoring in the 19th minute, finishing a move worked by Jérémy Doku, but City’s lead lasted two minutes before Daizen Maeda levelled. Haaland’s header from Mateo Kovacic’s delivery restored it on 34 minutes, and his low finish on 68 minutes — after Iliman Ndiaye picked him out — looked to have settled it. It did not. A third Haaland goal was ruled out by VAR for offside in the build-up on 85 minutes, and Zian Flemming’s penalty two minutes later left City defending an increasingly ragged lead into stoppage time.
The three points took City to 21 from seven matches. Arsenal, second on 15 points, have a game in hand.
Seven from seven: a record that outlasted Guardiola’s
Maresca is now the first manager to win his opening seven Premier League fixtures at a club. Pep Guardiola at City, Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United each managed six before dropping points; Maresca has beaten Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Coventry City, Manchester United, Sunderland, Liverpool and now Ipswich.
“First of all, I am very happy because it’s a matter of winning games in this business. We were able to win seven in a row,” Maresca said. “Today I thought we controlled the game, created chances and were good off the ball. We are doing well and I think that’s the most important thing.”
The run reframes a summer that looked, on paper, like a risk. City paid Chelsea around £17m in compensation and gave Maresca a three-year contract in June, four months after he left Stamford Bridge midway through his second season there. The appointment was less a gamble than a reunion: Maresca coached City’s youth sides and was Guardiola’s assistant during the 2018-19 campaign. Replacing the most successful manager in the club’s history was always going to be judged on results rather than résumé, and the results have come immediately — including, pointedly, wins over both Liverpool and Manchester United.
Haaland’s milestone, and a striker Maresca calls a captain
Haaland’s double took him to 12 league goals this season and four in the past week. It also carried him to 100 non-penalty Premier League goals in 139 appearances, fewer than any player before him has needed. That is the statistic that cuts through: Haaland’s scoring has never been in doubt, but reaching three figures from open play inside 139 games compresses what took previous generations of forwards the better part of a decade.
Maresca’s praise went beyond the finishing.
“He’s not just scoring,” the Italian said. “He’s a leader, a captain. He’s doing very well.”
That matters in a side still being rebuilt around him. Sávio and Omar Marmoush left for Tottenham in the summer, and Ndiaye — a £65m signing from Everton on 1 September — is the replacement being asked to supply him. The assist on Saturday was evidence the pairing is bedding in.
The sanction nobody can yet calculate
City’s position at the top of the table carries an asterisk of uncertainty that no run of form can erase. On 29 September, a Premier League commission found the club guilty of breaking financial rules across nine seasons from 2009-10 to 2017-18, along with three of four charges of failing to co-operate with the investigation — 114 of the 115 charges, by media count. The commission concluded City had used “sham” commercial contracts to inflate revenues and reduce costs by more than £900m combined, funded covertly by its Abu Dhabi ownership.
The punishment is a separate matter, to be determined at a further hearing before the same commission. No date has been set. City are appealing. Until then:
- A points deduction remains on the table, with no indication of scale
- Expulsion has been raised by observers but not by the commission
- Every point City bank now may be measured against a deficit applied retrospectively
For Ipswich, Saturday was a defeat that read better than the result. Gary O’Neil, appointed on a three-year deal on 23 June after arriving from Strasbourg, has his side on nine points from seven games following a 2-1 win over Fulham on 10 October. Maeda’s equaliser and Flemming’s penalty were both earned rather than gifted.
“Really disappointed,” O’Neil said. “We’ve shown everyone we can compete.”
City host AEK Athens in the Champions League on Tuesday before travelling to Aston Villa on 24 October — the first fixture capable of testing whether seven wins is a record or the start of something longer.
“`
**Sources:** [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/13598864/man-city-3-2-ipswich-erling-haalands-incredible-scoring-run-continues-as-enzo-marescas-side-continue-to-weather-storm) · [ESPN match report](https://www.espn.com/soccer/report/_/gameId/401879259) · [Yahoo Sports — Maresca quotes](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/maresca-delighted-record-breaking-start-172000934.html) · [NBC News — 115 charges verdict](https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/soccer/man-city-guilty-almost-115-financial-charges-premier-league-says-rcna600523) · [ESPN — Ndiaye transfer](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49773926/iliman-ndiaye-joins-man-city-everton) · [ESPN — O’Neil to Ipswich](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49119895/ipswich-town-announce-gary-o-neil-new-manager-ahead-premier-league-return)
Two notes on the brief: the summary said “seventh straight league victory,” which is accurate but undersells the actual story — those are Maresca’s *first* seven games, a Premier League record. I led with that. Also, Sky and ESPN differ by a minute on Haaland’s second (68′ vs 69′) and Flemming’s penalty (88′ vs 90′); I used Sky’s timings. Article is 745 words.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
1026 articles published
