Johnny On The Spot: #RELENTLESS. Manchester City’s relentless pursuit of a first successful Premier League title defence continues but it was given a testing defensive examination by a spirited West Ham who despite often being reduced to paper kite’s in a wind tunnel took the game to The Blues whenever they could.
Each of City’s three first half goals in a match winning opening salvo were beautifully crafted and imprinted with the Pep Guardiola hallmark. 21 goals to 2 for November across 5 games, Pep’s record breakers have now chalked up another accolade in being the first club from outside London to win 6 consecutive games in the capital since Portsmouth in 1968. Furthermore, the last time City kept 4 consecutive clean sheets on the road was way back in 1903.
The timing of this win post international break disruption is ideal ahead of the big Champions League showdown with Lyon on Tuesday night against a backdrop of French civil unrest. The victory is all the more pleasing considering the absence of the injured triumvirate of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy. City eased back on the gas for the second half, invited West Ham to huff and puff on to them and deployed another example of efficient game management.
The eerie stadium fell increasingly silent while City stroked the ball around at a leisurely pace before deciding they fancied scoring a fourth, Leroy Sané my man of the match delivering the consummate finish.
The London Stadium
FA Premier League
Attendance: 56886
Referee: Andre Marriner
West Ham United | Manchester City | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Silva (11'), Sterling (19'), Sané (34', 90'+3) | |||||||
1 Lukasz Fabianski | 31 Ederson | ||||||
5 Pablo Zabaleta | 2 Kyle Walker | ||||||
4 Fabian Balbuena | 30 Nicolas Otamendi | ||||||
23 Issa Diop | 14 Aymeric Laporte | ||||||
26 Arthur Masuaku | Cresswell 45' | 18 Fabian Delph | |||||
14 Pedro Obiang | 21 David Silva | ||||||
41 Declan Rice | 25 Fernandinho | ||||||
45 Grady Diangana | Hernández 55' | 8 Ilkay Gündogan | Foden 69' | ||||
30 Michail Antonio | 7 Raheem Sterling | Mahrez 74' | |||||
8 Felipe Anderson | Pérez 68' | 10 Sergio Agüero | Jesus 81' | ||||
7 Marko Arnautovic | 19 Leroy Sané | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
3 Aaron Cresswell | 4 Vincent Kompany | ||||||
9 Andy Carroll | 5 John Stones | ||||||
13 Adrián | 26 Riyad Mahrez | ||||||
16 Mark Noble | 33 Gabriel Jesus | ||||||
17 Javier Hernández | 35 Zinchenko | ||||||
21 Angelo Ogbonna | 47 Philip Foden | ||||||
27 Lucas Pérez | 49 Aro Muric |
Game Statistics |
||
9 | Goal attempts | 10 |
1 | On Target | 6 |
8 | Corners | 1 |
6 | Fouls | 3 |
0 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
0 | Red Cards | 0 |
30 | % | 70 |