Manchester City make light work of West Ham in the capital
An unseasonably chilly Sunday afternoon greeted West Ham and Manchester City players at the London Stadium. Indeed, the cauldron of cold in east London had the feel of a mid-winter match, not game 35 of the season for both teams. Come full time, however, it felt more a pre-season matchup than a Premier League encounter as City sauntered to another three points and moved a step closer to a place in the history books.
The champions drew first blood as Leroy Sane’s shot inadvertently deflected off Patrice Evra’s - much to the delight of the travelling City fans - head and past Adrian, deputising for Joe Hart, with a little under 15 minutes on the clock. In the process, Sane became the first player to reach double figures for goals (10) and assists (12) in the Premier League this season. City then doubled their advantage as Pablo Zabaleta turned Kevin De Bruyne’s lows cross into his own net, with Pep Guardiola’s side becoming the second team in Europe’s top 5 leagues to reach the 100-goal milestone after French giants PSG.
Marko Arnautovic thought he’d halved the deficit in the latter exchanges of the first half. Ederson was dawdling in possession and while the Austrian tucked the ball into an empty net, he was adjudged to have fouled the Brazilian goalkeeper in the process of winning the ball. The Hammers made no mistake moments later, though, from netting as Aaron Cresswell netted a sumptuous free-kick in at Emerson’s near post to give West Ham belief before the interval, with the left-back netting his first Premier League goal since April 2016, when he scored against Leicester.
Gabriel Jesus restored City’s two-goal advantage in the early exchanges of the second half, with Sterling on hand to provide his second assist of the match with a lovely move from the pair for the champions. As such, the City winger, after Sane in the first half, became the second Premier League player this season to register double figures for goals (18) and assists (10). Sterling then turned provider once more midway through the second half for his 11th assist of the campaign, this time for Fernandinho. The England international pulled back for the Brazilian to fire past Adrian to compound a miserable afternoon for West Ham.
It wasn’t the first time Sterling and City had found ample space down the West Ham right and David Moyes was being punished for his decision to field ageing full-back pair Zabaleta and Patrice Evra against City. The champions’ wide pair of Sane and Sterling have the pace to leave any full-back duo for dead with their speed and that came to pass time and time again on Sunday. Evra in particularly endured a turgid afternoon against Sterling before he was hauled off for Arthur Masuaku midway through the second half.
The need to inject experience at the back evidently swayed Moyes into using Evra at left wing-back, but in doing so, West Ham were unable to deal with Sterling’s speed and City ensured they punished Moyes’ bizarre choice to play the Frenchman at Masuaku’s expense. The latter may not be the most defensive of full-backs, but he at least boasts physical capability to keep nippy wingers in check, a trait that Moyes should have undoubtedly factored in when naming his starting XI.
Moyes’ baffling selection didn’t influence City’s approach to goal, though. Time and time again, the champions have pushed opponents down their right, with Kyle Walker, one of Sterling or Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne routinely pulling to the flank to overload defences and considering they have scored in excess of 100 league goals this term, it’s quite clearly a tact that works. It’s similar on the left, where the left-back, David Silva and Sane all press down the left double up on full-backs and it was in fact Silva’s absence from today’s squad that perhaps played on Guardiola’s mind and was a key reason for City's ruthlessness down their right.
