Manchester City 1-0 Coventry: Haaland 26
Enzo Maresca has three out of three wins so far into his Manchester City career. There hasn’t been a sense, though, that this is a machine running very smoothly.
There was rattling and shuddering against Bournemouth on the opening day, when City had to effect a late comeback to win, and here against newly promoted Coventry, the match hung in the balance for a long time.
Erling Haaland scored his 300th goal in club football just before the half hour, and City went ahead to win by the lone goal, but it was “not a nice win,” Maresca said afterwards, “a bit ugly.”
Enzo Fernandez, who joined from Chelsea for £125m on deadline day, was initially named on the bench but was brought into the starting lineup when Nico O’Reilly suffered a back problem during the warm-up. The Argentina midfielder slotted seamlessly into the side and was involved in some really good moments, including the buildup to the only goal.
Fernandez released Antoine Semenyo into space on the right in the 26th minute. Semenyo chased the ball to the byline and then put in a cross towards the far post, where Haaland zoomed ahead of Aurele Amenda to meet it and head past Carl Rushworth.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 5, 2026
City had threatened before taking the lead. Rayan Cherki played Haaland through on the left, the striker riding a sliding tackle that would almost certainly have conceded a penalty had he gone down, but then his shot was saved by Rushworth, who spread himself wide. Cherki later struck the post himself after Fernandez had progressed the ball and found him in space.
But quite often City also had the look of a half-baked side and Coventry enjoyed some good moments. Early on, Gianluigi Donnarumma was almost caught out by Abdukodir Khusanov’s simple back pass. Under no pressure the goalkeeper let the ball go almost completely over the line before recovering to kick it away.
Then a loose pass from Antoine Semenyo was intercepted by Taiwo Awoniyi, who bolted towards goal but saw his shot fly slightly wide of the left-hand post.
There was an open feel to this game, even if City held more of the ball and Coventry spent more of their time defending. It always felt like the visitors could find something at any time and before the break, Jack Rudoni had a header from a long throw, but Donnarumma could save.
Frank Lampard’s side are still searching for their first Premier League goal after winning the Championship last season to return to the top-flight. They have lost all three of their matches so far, but the feeling here should be as far from panic as possible.
They are sat at the bottom of the league table and the home defeat by Hull last week was painful. But this is also a side who have played both Arsenal and City, the top two in the league last season, in their opening three games, and in the second half here at the Etihad they were even better.
Frank Lampard reflects on today’s defeat away at Manchester City. pic.twitter.com/4ymN27rOa4
— Coventry City (@CoventryCityFC) September 5, 2026
Loum Tchaouna and Caleb Yirenkyi were brought on from the bench and Coventry soon clicked into another gear, Tchaouna forcing a low save from Donnarumma. Maresca swapped Fernandez in the 75th minute for another expensive new midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi to defend as Coventry continued to pressure.
Matt Grimes sent a shot narrowly wide, but City had a late effort through Phil Foden cleared off the line by Bobby Thomas, before Donnarumma blocked Ellis Simms’s shot with his face from close range as time ran out and Maresca’s side could celebrate.
