Manchester City cruised past a disappointing West Ham United at the London Stadium last night registering a 4-0 win to close the gap on the Premier League’s top four.
Easy
Three first half goals from Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva and new signing Gabriel Jesus, all but killed the game as a contest within 39 minutes. Yaya Toure added a fourth after the break from a penalty when Hammers debutant Jose Fonte brought down Raheem Sterling.
West Ham repeatedly lost possession in midfield and each of Manchester City’s three first-half goals came about from mistakes by the home side.
Manchester City are now only just behind fourth-placed Liverpool on goal difference, 10 points behind leaders Chelsea, while West Ham remain in eleventh spot.
Although they are not yet getting sucked back into a relegation fight, West Ham are now looking over their shoulder at the teams below them. Worringly, the Club has now conceded 12 goals to City this season, including nine in 2017 – all at the London Stadium.
Worrying times for the Hammers
Fans turning up for last night’s game were in an optimistic spirit as recent results have been good. However, once the match got underway it quickly become apparent that this was going to be a difficult evening for the east London club.
While Manchester City was imperious in position, the Hammers played a huge part in their own downfall.
Left back Aaron Cresswell had a night he’ll want to forget as he gave the ball away for the first goal, then lost a 50-50 tackle before the second goal went in.
To compound matters, Pedro Obiang – who had a steady enough match in general – gave the ball to Sane for the third Manchester City goal.
The second half saw West Ham gamely try and make a match of it, but 3-0 down was too big a gap to make up. Toure’s penalty to make it 4-0 was the icing on the cake for City.
Late in the game, West Ham did have the ball in the net, although Michail Antonio was offside when he collected Robert Snodgrass’s through ball to fire home.
Before the last ten minutes of the game was up, the stadium was already beginning to empty out very quickly as home spectators made for the exits.
For West Ham, although the result was not good, they are now safe in knowledge that they do not have to play Manchester City again this season.
They travel to Southampton this Saturday hoping to put this result behind them as quickly as possible. For new signing Fonte, it is a return to his former club, and he will be anxious to put in a match-winning performance.
