A daunting task awaited the Toffees against a City side that had won their last two home league games by three-plus goal margins.
David Moyes had been beaten on each of his last eight visits to the Etihad, but his team made a strong start here as they looked to correct that record, preventing the hosts from getting any real foothold early on.
Everton’s good play really should’ve been rewarded inside the opening quarter-hour, but Iliman Ndiaye’s inviting square ball was marginally too heavy for Beto, who failed to make proper contact at the back post with the goal at his mercy.
Clear sightings at goal were fleeting for City, with their best two openings of the half seeing Haaland’s header come back off the bar, before Jeremy Doku’s curling strike from the left was denied by Jordan Pickford.
Opposite number Gianluigi Donnarumma was called into action before the break to deny Ndiaye’s powerful strike, ensuring parity at the break and leaving the contest finely poised ahead of the restart.
More dogged Everton defending kept them on level terms, but just two minutes shy of the hour mark, the irrepressible Haaland broke through the visitors’ resistance.
The Norwegian escaped his marker inside the box and leapt high to head home from Nico O’Reilly’s cross, and doubled his personal tally just five minutes later with a vicious low drive from Savinho’s cutback that fizzed past Pickford.
That took Haaland’s outrageous scoring run to 23 goals in just 13 matches for club and country this term, while it was also his sixth strike in five games against Everton.
That knocked the stuffing out of the visitors, who suffered a first Premier League away defeat by a multi-goal margin since December, though their defeat could’ve been far heavier if not for a series of late saves from Pickford to deny Haaland another hat-trick.
They remain winless on this ground since 2010, while City’s unbeaten head-to-head run reached 18 matches with a victory that, at least temporarily, lifts them to the top of the table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)