Enzo Maresca is statistically the best coach in Premier League history. Over seven games, anyway. Nobody has ever won their first seven in charge. Not Ancelotti, not Mourinho, not Wenger.They’ll probably want that accolade wiped from the record books too, given how the conversation around City’s indiscretions is being shaped. Irrespective, it talks to a near-flawless few months to life at the Etihad Stadium for an Italian whose credentials were being written off before formally accepting the job and then again after a meaningless Community Shield defeat by Arsenal with an unfit team.The public face of the guilty verdicts and the only management employee talking on record about ramifications and the club’s stance, this is a job far more difficult than merely succeeding the best to have ever done it. He’s passing everything with flying colours for City’s hierarchy, both on and off the pitch.Six points is the gap between the leaders and Arsenal before the champions go to Nottingham Forest on Sunday. More strikingly, it is eight from Chelsea and nine down to Liverpool.This, you have to say, is as awkward as it gets for Richard Masters and the Premier League board. As the world waits for the next stage of this bitter legal case, an appeal that is likely to bring down the grand old house of English football either which way, City just keep winning. Keep winning games with a load of jeopardy attached to them, nip and tuck, chances at both ends right until the end.Ironically, they are dispatching the more established clubs with more ease than the upstarts, and Maresca keeps smiling in the face of ire. They are scoring heaps, giving up plenty of opportunities for the opposition with a daring style, and are eminently more watchable than anybody else in this division. To illustrate that, Gary O’Neil feels that Ipswich Town deserved far more from this and will have more than a few agreeing with him. Erling Haaland netted twice for Manchester City as they beat Ipswich 3-2 on Saturday The win means Enzo Maresca is the best manager in Premier League history, with no boss ever winning their first seven matches in charge beforeAnother Erling Haaland brace – four for the campaign – against a promoted team who are posing serious questions in this league and wasted decent chances at 2-1 just after the break, notably when Emersonn headed wide after Gianluigi Donnarumma flapped at a corner.Haaland seemingly cannot stop – although went straight down the tunnel at full-time with what looks a knee injury having appeared as if he was unwell in the Mancunian cold – and the general merriment in the stands continued from Anfield last week. Maresca, though, seemed to suggest he was fine afterwards.Some will instead label the merriment as defiance and others will ask what on earth do City supporters have to be defiant over. What is definitely the case is that the past few weeks have provoked a reaction from a fanbase that has been asked to swot up on matters no avid follower of any sport should have to.And then there were the bananas. Eleven thousand of them hung over seats and many more sold outside. Word at the back end of the week was that chief executive Ferran Soriano had hoped to order in 60,000 to fill the stadium, only for constraints on supply putting paid to that.Funnily enough, ex-striker Imre Varadi owns a business that trades in the sale of inflatable fruit. While not being the reason for the 1980s craze, Varadi is synonymous with it and City now do their banana business with him. He was invited into a box for the day to see them waved as each goal went in.None more so than when Haaland thought he’d completed his hat-trick late on, callously volleying into the roof of Christian Walton’s net, only for Enzo Fernandez to have been ruled offside in the build-up, cleared up by VAR. Marc Guehi has a tough game – and Gary O’Neil felt his Ipswich side deserved more Former director Txiki Begiristain (left) was in attendance to show support for his old clubThen the game turned heading into stoppage time. Marc Guehi – who had been culpable for Ipswich’s earlier equaliser, when Daizen Maeda wriggled clear from a routine ball in behind – was caught wrong side of Abdul Fatawu. Guehi nicked the winger’s calf as he strode towards goal. Referee Farai Hallam waved away the appeals when the decision seemed clear and needed calling back by VAR again to overturn it.Zian Flemming hammered the penalty down the middle, Ipswich now within a goal and Hallam – who became exceptionally unpopular in a game against Wolves here last January – then somehow ruling 12 minutes of injury time to incredulity.Still end to end, still City desperate to find a fourth and not hold what they had. Donnarumma tangled in his own netting while punching away a corner. Sharp intakes of breath, more gasps.Maresca loves this entertainment but doubtless wants a tad more of the control with which this club had become accustomed. Former director of football Txiki Begiristain, sat next to Hugo Viana as another show of support for the club from the old guard, will not have seen much of this helter-skelter stuff under the previous incumbent.Begiristain witnessed a positive afternoon for Phil Foden, sweeping in the 19th-minute opener beautifully from Jeremy Doku’s pass in a way we have seen so often down the years. He went off to a standing ovation and with a huge grin for the first time in a long time. Maheda struck back two minutes later before Haaland’s powerful header proved too hot for Walton just after the half hour.It prompted ‘Dave from Liverpool’ to send a message into the BBC’s live text service to suggest that ‘City are just a midtable team without Haaland,’ which feels indicative of the collective loss of perspective in recent weeks. As it was, the goal was greeted by chants of ‘we are staying up’ before they completed fine renditions of a future spent travelling to Stockport County for league fixtures. That should stir some enthusiasm given the bounty of ale choices behind Edgeley Park’s Cheadle End and the town’s general upturn. It’s a pretty strong away day.Haaland’s second – 12 for the season – saw him muscle Ouattara out of the way from the industrious Iliman Ndiaye’s pass and appeared to put the game beyond doubt, only for Ipswich to wrestle back in for what became a ridiculously nervous final passage. Say what you like about City but they are certainly not boring. MATCH FACTS AND PLAYER RATINGS Man City (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma 6; Nunes 7 (Khusanov 76), Dias 6, Guehi 4, O’Reilly 5 (Gvardiol 61, 5); Bouaddi 7, Kovacic 7 (Fernandez 50, 7); Ndiaye 7, Foden 7 (Anderson 77), Doku 7 (Semenyo 77); Haaland 8Subs not used: Rulli, Air-Nouri, Cherki, AllanBooked: Gvardiol Goals: Foden 19, Haaland 34, 69Manager: Enzo Maresca 7Ipswich Town (4-2-3-1): Walton 6; O’Shea 6, Diop 5, Greaves 6 (Clarke 90), Davis 7; Florentino 4 (Matusiwa 71, 6), Palacios 7; Outtara 6, Enciso 6 (Akpom 78), Maeda 7 (Fatawu 71, 7); Emersonn 6 (Flemming 78)Subs not used: Scherpen, Kipre, Furlong, PhilogeneBooked: Ouattara, DavisGoals: Maeda 21, Flemming 90 PEN Manager: Gary O’Neil 7Referee: Farai Hallam 5<!- – ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/sport/football/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 – ->