Second-half goals from Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland helped Manchester City come from behind to beat in-form West Ham and continue their winning start to the Premier League season.

Silva then collected Julian Alvarez’s looping ball over the West Ham defense before calmly slotting past Alphonse Areola.

Haaland, who had squandered several previous chances, completed the scoring at the London Stadium with a trademark finish.

“We were fantastic throughout the game, even when we were losing at half-time against an incredible team,” City manager Pep Guardiola told BBC Sport. “We were efficient and patient in the second half.

“It was a big victory after the international break. The team showed good spirit to survive.”

City maintain their two-point lead over Tottenham and Liverpool at the top of the table, while West Ham fall to sixth place thanks to their first defeat of the campaign.

The city’s patience pays off

There wasn’t much wrong with City’s first half performance but, despite recording 17 shots before the break, they failed to find a way past the back -Depth guard of Areola and West Ham.

They almost took a deserved lead after just six minutes, but Areola made some fine saves to deny Rodri and Ruben Dias either side of Tomas Soucek’s block on Haaland’s goal line.

The Norwegian – among others – wasted two glorious chances before half-time, somehow directing Doku’s low cross wide of the far post before seeing another shot cleared off the line by Nayef Aguerd in retirement.

Guardiola, back in the City dugout after surgery, will have asked the same of his players at half-time and they were level just moments after the restart as the lively Doku intervened from the left before producing a expert finish.

Reflecting on the 21-year-old Belgian’s performance, Guardiola said: “I would say in the first game (against Fulham) he was shy, but today he wasn’t. He was a good winger , he had the ball and had the ability to go one on one.

“Not only that, he has the quality of knowing when to pass to the next player. I was very happy. It was a very good performance from Jeremy.”

Alvarez rattled a post with a wonderful free-kick shortly after Doku’s leveler, but City were not denied as the Argentine collected a smart ball over the West Ham backline for Silva can return home.

Haaland delivered the icing on the cake late on, extending his championship tally to seven goals in five games this season with a smart finish from Silva’s pass.

The Valiant Hammers fail

West Ham defeated Brighton last month despite having just 22% possession, and for a long time it looked like they might pull off another famous victory against the Premier League champions despite having their backs against the wall during the big majority of the first half.

The hosts could have taken the lead before the opener, with Aguerd almost getting on the end of Soucek’s shot at the near post following a clever corner routine involving Ward-Prowse and Jarrod Bowen.

West Ham’s move for the opening goal was perfectly executed, with Vladimir Coufal firing a delicious cross for Ward-Prowse to head home from close range.

But their hard work was undone seconds after the break, much to the frustration of David Moyes, his coaching staff and the home fans.

“It was bad timing for their first goal just after half-time, but I was more disappointed with their second goal – it was really bad,” Moyes told BBC Sport.

“We had small margins in the other games we won. Today their goalkeeper made a few saves and those margins could have been in our favor. [but] doesn’t.

“We were probably as good with the ball today as we have been in a long time, but we didn’t have the chances we would have liked. We were still a threat, but not enough.”

Ederson pulled off a sensational one-handed save to deny Kurt Zouma the score at 1-1, but Silva’s goal appeared to deflate West Ham before Haaland’s late effort ended their hopes of getting anything from the competition.