{"id":761182,"date":"2026-09-05T20:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T20:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/761182\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T20:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T20:50:12","slug":"haaland-edges-manchester-city-past-coventry-as-fernandez-sparkles-on-debut-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/761182\/","title":{"rendered":"Haaland edges Manchester City past Coventry as Fern\u00e1ndez sparkles on debut | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez started for Manchester City<\/a> after Nico O\u2019Reilly\u2019s back injury during the warm-up and sparkled, showing why the club paid a British-record-equalling \u00a3125m for the midfielder. The winner came courtesy of Erling Haaland\u2019s 300th goal in club football and Fern\u00e1ndez had a key part, feeding Antoine Semenyo, whose cross from the right was crashed home.<\/p>\n

In the second half Coventry hammered away, but their wait for a first top-flight goal since Mustapha Hadji\u2019s second in a 3-2 defeat at Aston Villa on 5 May 2001 goes on. The visitors did not like losing, but were heartened by holding the star-studded hosts to a slender win, though the bottom line is all three of their Premier League<\/a> outings on their return have been defeats.<\/p>\n

Frank Lampard said: \u201cI don\u2019t think we deserved to lose. I\u2019m disappointed we didn\u2019t get what we deserved \u2013 which was a point. We can walk out of here with our heads held extremely high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enzo Maresca\u2019s men have a maximum nine points so can be supremely satisfied. \u201cToday was not a nice win, a bit ugly,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the first half we deserved more goals \u2013 we scored one but could have scored one or two more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The manager said of Fern\u00e1ndez: \u201cThe reason Enzo was on the bench [initially] was because he arrived only a few days ago. I know how frustrating it was for him in the last weeks but in the end he played some minutes and was quite good. Nico felt something in his back \u2013 not serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayyoub Bouaddi, bought for \u00a385m, was on the bench for the hosts, as Fern\u00e1ndez lined up alongside Rayan Cherki in a 4-1-2\u20132-1 that had Semenyo and Iliman Ndiaye, another new home signing, stationed behind Haaland.<\/p>\n

Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez shoots on his Manchester City debut. Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Coventry, with Ethan Pinnock and Frank Onyeka replacing Caleb Yirenkyi and Loum Tchaouna from the XI that lost at home to Hull<\/a>, could have taken the lead when Abdukodir Khusanov played the ball back to Gianluigi Donnarumma and it slipped under the goalkeeper\u2019s boot, but the Italian scrambled it clear. The visitors should then have bridged the 25 years to Hadji when a Semenyo pass meant for R\u00faben Dias was intercepted by Taiwo Awoniyi. But when the striker ran in his radar failed, and the shot was pulled wide.<\/p>\n

The longer Coventry stayed level the better their prospects. Cherki fed a galloping Haaland and he twisted and let fly, but Carl Rushworth\u2019s save was equal to the shot. Then, dazzling Cherki footwork \u2013 after a pass from Fern\u00e1ndez \u2013 was followed by an effort that struck a post.<\/p>\n

The frame of the goal and Rushworth could do nothing to stop Haaland\u2019s opener. This time Fern\u00e1ndez curved a pass in behind for Semenyo, the right-winger spun the ball over, and Haaland did the rest.<\/p>\n

This was 26 minutes in and Coventry were under siege. Fern\u00e1ndez collected the ball along the right, looked up and aimed a cross for Haaland but it failed to beat the first man. Then Cherki, again in Fred Astaire mode, made space and saw an effort blocked.<\/p>\n

Maresca wants his wingers to be more direct \u2013 utilising the pace of Ndiaye and Semenyo \u2013 and the tactic spun Coventry. So, too, did an impish Cherki flick which put Haaland in again: he rode a challenge when going down might have brought a penalty, before shooting. Rushworth once more thwarted the Norwegian.<\/p>\n

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Frank Lampard and the Coventry players applaud their fans but their wait for a Premier League goal goes on. Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p>\n

For Coventry, Jack Rudoni did better than Awoniyi with a header at close range, but Donnarumma flew to his left to prevent an equaliser. This showed the hope Lampard\u2019s men carried but they had to finish any chance as these were scarce.<\/p>\n

Ndiaye was fairly quiet on debut and when Cherki\u2019s work took the ball to him in the area he should have pulled the trigger but refused.<\/p>\n

Maresca said of the Senegalese: \u201cIli just had two sessions with us \u2013 most of the time he was moving in the wrong way, he needs to learn. When Marc Gu\u00e9hi has the ball [at centre-back] he was dropping a lot \u2013 we didn\u2019t need that, we needed him in the final third, that space was for Josko [Gvardiol, the left-back].\u201d<\/p>\n

The manager was more enthused about Elliot Anderson. \u201cReally impressed not just today, he was very good against Palace, and against Bournemouth,\u201d said Maresca. \u201cThe best thing with Elliot is day by day he wants to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bouaddi\u2019s home debut came on 75 minutes for Fern\u00e1ndez and the 18-year-old showed composure during Coventry\u2019s late-game bombardment, which included Ellis Sims forcing a point-blank save from Donnarumma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez started for Manchester City after Nico O\u2019Reilly\u2019s back injury during the warm-up and sparkled, showing why…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-761182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}