Manchester City maintained their perfect start to the season with a 1-0 win over promoted Coventry City at the Etihad Stadium.
Erling Haaland’s first-half header, after a raking Antoine Semenyo cross, gave Enzo Maresca’s side all three points.
The home side — featuring new signings Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye — dominated possession and clinched the win despite conceding some late chances.
It means City have nine points from three matches and top the Premier League table, with Frank Lampard’s Coventry still pointless and rooted to the bottom. Here, Sam Lee breaks down the key talking points.
Anderson playing like a veteran
Maybe it is a trick of the mind because Fernandez and Ndiaye only signed on Tuesday and Ayyoub Bouaddi came in not long before that, but Elliot Anderson plays like he has been at the Etihad Stadium for years.
The 23-year-old, who signed for City during the World Cup but did not join up with the team until a few days before the Community Shield, always seems to be in the right place to mop up danger and never seems to make a bad decision in possession. The England man surely had by far the most touches on the pitch, always getting on the ball deep and starting the build-up play.
Often, he fired the ball through the lines into the feet of attacking players, who bounced it off to a team-mate facing goal, a very clear attacking pattern of Maresca’s City on the day. In difficult situations, Anderson was there to take the ball and calm things down again.
Maresca sees Anderson as his holding midfielder, which answers a lot of questions about the make-up of the City midfield going forward, and with displays like this it is very easy to imagine him running the show just as the likes of Rodri and Fernandinho did over the past decade.
How did new signings fare?
Fernandez made his debut after a £125m move from Chelsea (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
These were solid, promising debuts from Ndiaye and Fernandez, with the pair of them showing plenty of promise but not quite the bite you would expect from somebody fully settled into their new surroundings.
Granted, this is not the primary role of a winger, but Ndiaye impressed in the first half by sprinting for a loose ball he was never a favourite to win, and coming away with it. That shows the kind of buy-in that City need when they turn the ball over, and in these early days of Maresca it does happen.
Ndiaye was most lively early in the first half, with the ball coming his way often, and he was happy to dribble both inside and out to keep his marker guessing. He was always confident on the ball, even dribbling out of a couple of tricky situations deep in his own half, and the fact he went down with cramp at the end goes to show that it was a demanding afternoon.
Fernandez went off with 14 minutes to go after, again, a solid showing. With Anderson asked to be the fulcrum of the team, the Argentine midfielder took up the slightly wide-on-the-right midfield position that City have been working on this season. He played his part in the goal with a just about perfectly judged ball in behind for Semenyo, who crossed for Haaland.
Fernandez linked up well with Semenyo and put his boot in for loose balls, which is what you would expect as a minimum on this sort of occasion. Having both arrived just a few days ago, these were good starts, but of course more is expected.
Why could City not close out the game?
Twenty minutes into the second half this had the feel of a comfortable 2-0 or 3-0 lead for the home side, but as soon as everybody realised there was only a one-goal margin things started to get a lot more fraught.
City probably should have been a couple of goals up at half-time but Haaland and Rayan Cherki were not quite clinical enough, and there were two crosses at the start of the second half that suggested more goals would soon be on the way.
A bold display from promoted Coventry at the Etihad but they leave with nothing. Erling Haaland’s goal maintains Man City’s 100% record. pic.twitter.com/5gHnINQVs6
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) September 5, 2026
But they did not come, and Coventry got more and more encouragement the longer their deficit stayed at one. Gianluigi Donnarumma’s face saved City from an equaliser and there was some good defending needed to ward off the crosses and long throws that rained into their penalty area.
The home side lived on their nerves and were often their own worst enemy, trying a risky pass when all they needed to do was put their foot on the ball and re-establish control. They had some scares in the first half which, combined with the nervy ending, will be enough to keep them honest after a game where they had also done enough to score more.
It provides plenty to think about ahead of next Sunday’s Manchester derby, that is for sure.
What did Maresca say?
“Nine of 10 of this kind of game you end up conceding but not all the wins are going to be nice wins, we need some kind of these wins in an ugly way
“I think first half we deserve more goals, we scored one but could have scored one or two more. The good thing for me is that all of the wins have been different. Palace we were very good on the ball and off the ball, today was not a nice win, a bit an ugly win but defending long throws set-pieces is something you need.”
What next for City?
Tuesday, September 8: Porto (Away), Champions League, 8pm BST, 3pm ET