Man City go six points clear at the top, but a late Zian Flemming penalty made for a nervy finish at the Etihad.
Erling Haaland scored twice as Manchester City beat Ipswich Town 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, their seventh straight Premier League win and the result that put them six points clear at the top. Haaland took the headlines, but the afternoon also belonged to the player Sky Sports called "the forgotten Phil Foden".
Phil Foden gave City the lead in the 19th minute. It was his first league goal since December, ending a run of 23 games without one. Jeremy Doku's run set it up, and Foden finished low past Christian Walton.
Ipswich hit back quickly. Daizen Maeda got the better of Marc Guehi and beat Gianluigi Donnarumma, less than three minutes after Foden's strike.
Haaland restored City's lead with a header in the 34th minute, after Mateo Kovacic found space down the right and delivered the ball into the box. After the break, Iliman Ndiaye played Haaland through and he finished calmly to make it 3-1. Haaland then thought he had completed a hat-trick with an acrobatic effort, but VAR ruled it out for a marginal offside against Enzo Fernandez in the build-up.
Haaland is now the fastest player in Premier League history to reach 100 non-penalty goals. Maresca was full of praise for his striker after the final whistle:
"...he's a leader, a captain. He's doing very well."
Haaland limped straight down the tunnel at full-time. Maresca played down the worry: "I don't know. I ask him, he said he was ok. Nothing serious."
Ipswich had a late route back into the game. VAR awarded a penalty after Guehi made contact with Abdul Fatawu inside the box, and Zian Flemming scored from the spot. City saw out the added time.
Ipswich boss Gary O'Neil was disappointed but proud of his side. "Really disappointed. I did believe we could take points. I'm proud of what the players gave," he said. Asked whether it felt any different to face City while their case with the Premier League hangs over them, O'Neil said: "It's just us against City. Trying to win. Bananas or no bananas. It makes no difference to me."
Home fans booed the Premier League anthem before kick-off and waved inflatable bananas in a tradition revived from the 1980s. City are appealing a verdict that found them guilty of 114 charges related to Premier League financial rule breaches between 2009 and 2018. Maresca has said he and his players can only focus on what happens on the pitch.
This is the first occasion in 129 years on which City have started a league season with seven successive victories. They were in the second tier when they last managed it, in 1897-98. Alongside Chelsea (2005-06) and Liverpool (2019-20), City are only the third team in Premier League history to start a season with seven wins, and Maresca is the first boss to collect seven wins from his opening seven matches with a new side in this league.
Ipswich had won half of their opening six games, and key meetings with Nottingham Forest and Hull City come next.
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