Both teams showed plenty of early intent with Erling Haaland coming agonisingly close to opening the scoring, before Benjamin Sesko forced Gianluigi Donnarumma into his first save as Pep Guardiola’s goalkeeper.
Altay Bayındır then survived one scare but was beaten in the 18th minute, as Jeremy Doku danced his way to the byline and crossed at the second attempt for Foden to head home his seventh career goal against United - meaning he has only scored more against Brighton.
Doku continued his bright start by teeing up Tijjani Reijnders for a first-time shot that the Dutchman could only guide straight at Bayındır, while Haaland did brilliantly to start a swift City move but uncharacteristically couldn’t apply the finishing touch to Bernardo Silva’s pass.
United looked to play the ball behind the hosts’ backline on multiple occasions, and one of those saw Abdukodir Khusanov concede a free-kick that resulted in an audacious Bruno Fernandes attempt being held just before the break.
Ruben Amorim’s side emerged defiantly for the restart, but the Cityzens stood firm with Haaland heading crosses away.
Back in his more usual position, the Norwegian held off Luke Shaw to latch onto Doku’s perfectly-weighted through ball and dinked it past the onrushing Bayındır to double the hosts’ lead.
Haaland got away from the goalkeeper again shortly after but poked the ball onto the post, and Donnarumma made his mark at the other end with a superb save to tip Mbeumo’s volley past the post.
Haaland was soon back on the prowl, punishing sloppy play from the visitors by racing onto Bernardo Silva’s pass and coolly slotting the ball home.
City were purring with their margin now comfortable, and Haaland turned provider only to see Reijnders fail to provide the same clinical touch as the midfielder dinked the ball wide.
He could still afford to smile, though, with Mbeumo’s threatening attempts coming to nothing as Man City secured all three points and provided the perfect response to their previous back-to-back defeats.
They also inflicted yet more misery on a Man United side who have so far recorded one win in five matches this season.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
