Premier League 2024-25: Haaland’s strike gives Man City win over Southampton; Wolves holds Brighton to 2-2 draw

Erling Haaland, whose 11 goals top the league scoring chart, had a flurry of near-misses in the second half, including a sitter from close range that he poked just wide.

Manchester City’s Erling Haaland celebrates with teammates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the English Premier League match against Southampton. | Photo Credit: AP

Manchester City’s Erling Haaland scored an early goal to take the champion provisionally top of the Premier League with a 1-0 victory over lowly Southampton at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s team has 23 points after nine games, two ahead of Liverpool, who visits Arsenal on Sunday. Southampton is still without a win in its first season back in the top flight after a season away and sits second-bottom on one point.

While Haaland scored a stunner in Wednesday’s 5-0 Champions League thrashing of Sparta Prague, he had gone three Premier League games without a goal but ended that drought in the fifth minute on Saturday.

Wrestling with defender Jan Bednarek, the 24-year-old Norwegian stabbed the ball into the roof of the net with a toe while falling onto his backside.

Southampton had a terrific chance to level right before the break but Cameron Archer smashed his shot against the bar.

Haaland, whose 11 goals top the league scoring chart, had a flurry of near-misses in the second half, including a sitter from close range that he poked just wide and then buried his head in his hands in disbelief.

Cunha strikes late as Wolves come back to draw 2-2 with Brighton

Matheus Cunha of Wolverhampton Wanderers celebrates with his teammates after scoring his team’s second goal during the Premier League match against Brighton & Hove Albion. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Cunha struck a superb stoppage-time equaliser to snatch a 2-2 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday as it came back from two goals down to grab a point that lifts it off the bottom of the Premier League table.

A first-half goal from Danny Welbeck and an Evan Ferguson strike in the 86th minute had given Brighton a 2-0 lead, but Rayan Ait-Nouri lashed home a loose ball after a corner to make it 2-1 in the 88th to set up a grandstand finish.

Searching for a third goal Brighton somehow butchered a four-on-one situation and allowed Wolves to break up the other end where Cunha advanced and rattled the ball into the net in the third minute of stoppage time for a most unlikely draw.

The point - only the second of the season for Wolves - lifts it to 19th spot on two points, one ahead of Southampton and one behind Crystal Palace, while Brighton is fifth on 16.