West Ham United boss David Moyes admitted his side 'couldn't get near' Manchester City during their 2-0 defeat at London Stadium.

Erling Haaland's debut double sank the Hammers in their opening game of the Premier League season to give the defending champions the points.

The £51million striker converted from the penalty spot in the first half, having been felled by substitute keeper Alphonse Areola, and slotted home from Kevin De Bruyne's through ball on 65 minutes before making way.

And Moyes, who had only one centre-back available after revealing Issa Diop did not make himself available to play, was honest in his appraisal of the action.

"It was really difficult," said Moyes.

"They played really well. We found it very hard. It was really difficult tactically to deal with. We couldn't get near them."

Haaland had already glanced a header wide when he was gifted the chance to get off the mark.

Areola had only been on the field for a couple of minutes, having replaced injury victim Lukasz Fabianski, when he brought Norway international Haaland down in the box.

Haaland sent Areola the wrong way from the spot and showed his composure again to double the advantage midway through the second half.

Moyes, who paired Ben Johnson with Kurt Zouma in the heart of the Hammers defence and handed debuts to Gianluca Scamacca and Flynes Downes off the bench, added: "From our point of view we were resilient, we hung in there and stuck at it.

"But the talk should be about Manchester City. They played very well. Hopefully we can do better in the weeks and months to come."

Opposite number Pep Guardiola was delighted to see his latest big money signing make his mark, having attracted criticism for his performance in the Community Shield defeat to Liverpool.

He said: "One week ago he could not adapt to the Premier League. Now he's alongside Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo.

"He's a guy with incredible talent, a scorer of goals. I know how he handled criticism this week and he was calm, he trained really well.

The way he took the ball to take the penalty, I said 'oh, I like it. I think If someone were to take this ball, he would have punched his teammates in the face!

"You've got to be self-confident, ambitious and have a ruthless mentality. And of course he scored it."