Erling Haaland scores twice as Man City open Premier League season with a win

Manchester City could be without Kevin De Bruyne for a number of weeks after he suffered the recurrence of a hamstring injury as the defending champions opened the Premier League season with a 30 win at Burnley on FridayErling Haaland scored twice before Rodri completed the scoring to give City a perfect start to their quest to become the first side to win four consecutive English topflight titlesBut the night was soured for Pep Guardiolarsquos men by the sight of De Bruyne limping off midway through the firsthalf The Belgian had suffered a hamstring tear in Cityrsquos Champions League final victory over Inter Milan two months agolsquoDe Bruyne was injured againrsquoldquoHe was injured again unfortunatelyrdquo said Guardiola ldquoSame place and position as the Champions League and he will be out for a while It depends on the magnitude but will be a few weeks out He has to free his mind and relax because he came back from that position previous injuries and he will be back nowrdquoBurnleyrsquos 202223 season finished over a month before Cityrsquos European Cup final win in Istanbul Guardiola has bemoaned his sidersquos short preseason compared to their rivals but they were quick out of the blocks ldquoWe are still not in our best physical form but we have to try to not drop many points in that periodrdquo added GuardiolaldquoItrsquos a question of mentality and we were fortunate to break the game early A lot of teams are going to suffer here so that is why I am so pleasedrdquoHaaland fired City to the treble last season by scoring 52 times in his first year at the club The 23yearold took just over three minutes of the new campaign to open his tally once more when he swept home Rodrirsquos header across goal after a wellworked corner between De Bruyne Bernardo Silva and Phil FodenBurnley boss Vincent Kompany has a statue outside Cityrsquos Etihad Stadium in honour of his decorated playing career with the English champions Kompany returned the Clarets back to the EPL at the first time of asking and transformed Burnleyrsquos playing style in the process during his first season in chargeAlso Read Womenrsquos football on the rise and for the betterClinical finisher missedDespite the scoreline the home side were far from outclassed but paid for the lack of a clinical finisher like Haaland Luca Koleosho and Zeki Amdouni missed good chances to equalise while Amdouni also had a penalty appeal turned downldquoThere were a lot of periods of the game where we did ourselves proudrdquo said KompanyBurnleyrsquos miserable night was rounded off in stoppage time when Anass Zaroury was shown a straight red card for a wild challenge on WalkerThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever