Finally, City doing City things

london: Erling Haaland and Manchester City might just be turning the corner after the team’s worst run of results under Pep Guardiola.

Haaland scored twice in a 4-1 win over West Ham on Saturday as City secured back-to-back victories in the Premier League for the first time since late October, when a shocking and unthinkable six-week meltdown began.

In that time, the defending champions played nine league games and won just once, dropping them out of the Champions League qualification spots and raising questions about Guardiola’s stomach for a rebuild.

Now, City can hope for better times ahead — especially after making up ground on second-placed Arsenal and fourth-placed Chelsea after they both dropped points in draws at Brighton and Crystal Palace, respectively, on Saturday. Still, Guardiola wasn’t getting carried away.

“I’m very pleased for the result,” he said, “but you cannot ask me if the old City is back. If you saw the game, we are not.”

Arsenal were held to 1-1 at Brighton, which equalized from the penalty spot through Joao Pedro, and missed the chance to trim the gap to LiverpoolChelsea have drawn twice and lost twice since Dec. 22, damaging a title bid that had been picking up some steam — even if manager Enzo Maresca never accepted his team was a realistic challenger. “We still created so many chances in front of goal but it’s about getting the end product,” Chelsea winger Jadon

Sancho said.