Doubles for Cherki, Haaland as Man City cruise to 4-1 win over Palace

Manchester City's Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland both struck twice as their side strolled to a 4-1 win away to Crystal Palace on Friday night to notch their second successive Premier League win.

Palace started brightly, but they went behind in the 17th minute when Haaland jumped to reach Antoine Semenyo’s cross and send a looping header beyond the despairing dive of Dean Henderson, for the Norwegian's first goal of the new league campaign.

In an end-to-end affair, City's Phil Foden spooned the ball over the bar in the 21st minute and Eddie Nketiah wasted an excellent chance for the home side early in the second half before Cherki netted in the 54th minute, dancing through the defence before poking the ball home.

Palace pulled a goal back two minutes later when Yeremy Pino's free kick came back off the crossbar and bounced off the back of City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma before hitting the post and dropping into the net.

But whatever hopes Palace had of staging a comeback were quickly snuffed out when French playmaker Cherki scored again in the 59th minute, flashing a deflected shot off Chris Richards and into the net for his second of the night.

Not to be outdone, Haaland picked up a pass from Foden and blasted home a typical left-foot shot in the 85th minute to complete the rout for Enzo Maresca's side and give City the maximum six points from their opening two games.

"Probably the first five or 10 minutes we saw how difficult it was. It's a difficult pitch and tough opponents, after 10 minutes we controlled the game on the ball and off the ball and deserved to win," Maresca said.

He praised his two goal scorers, and also had some words of encouragement for Phil Foden, who took on a number of attacking roles as the coach shuffled his deck late in the game.

"In the last 10-15 minutes, you can see he was even more happy to play inside behind Erling. That's his position," Maresca said.

"He's trying to adapt and trying to help when playing winger, his working is good, he's doing very good."

City have almost a full week off before their next game against newly-promoted Coventry City, with a sterner test the following week when they travel across town to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United in their first derby game of the season.