Manchester City run riot to leave West Ham looking over their shoulders
West Ham 1 Manchester City 4: The champions were far too good for their hosts at the London Stadium as their chase for Premier League records continued apace
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Your support makes all the difference.If West Ham United had hoped for a favour, or even some respite, up against a team with far less to play for than them, then they were looking in the wrong place. As desperate as West Ham are for one more win to keep themselves in the Premier League, they were steamrolled today by a Manchester City team whose only remaining targets are numbers and records.
City’s four goals here took them up to 102 for the season, one behind Chelsea’s record set in 2009-10. But this 4-1 margin does little to convey City’s dominance – they controlled all but five minutes at the end of the first half – or how many goals they could have scored.
West Ham were unable to offer and real resistance to City’s ambitions and now find themselves three points ahead of Southampton with two games left. It would take an unlikely combination of results to send them down, but they are not fully safe, not yet. And they did not offer many reasons for confidence here: the squad is exposed, the players could never get a foothold in the game. No back five should ever conceded as many chances as this.
For 40 minutes this was a fairly low-key demonstration of the reasons why City won the title long before we even got into May. They were not at their relentless best, but they did not need to be. They still monopolised possession, played entirely in West Ham’s half and did not allow their hosts much more than a desperate hack out of defence every few minutes.
Even when City’s execution was not perfect – there was no David Silva here – their learned patterns were too much for West Ham to stop. It was always so easy for Kevin de Bruyne, Kyle Walker or anyone else to pop up in space and create a chance. Even up against David Moyes’ belt and braces 5-4-1.
As West Ham got squeezed further and further back into their own box, it was no surprise at all when the first goal came. Gunodgan to Sterling to Sane, cutting in from the right, and his left-footed 25-yarder deflected in off the head of Patrice Evra.
The second goal was an even clearer example of brilliant build-up, clumsy execution: after Sterling nearly scored running in behind, Gundogan found De Bruyne out on the right. He whipped in a low cross which bounce off Adrian, Declan Rice and Pablo Zabaleta before trickling in.
It was all so insultingly easy for City that it briefly undermined that sense of intense application that is so important to them. When Marko Arnautovic flattened Ederson the home crowd woke up and City briefly dropped their guard. Gundogan tripped Fernandes and Cresswell curled a free-kick over the wall and past Ederson, in at the near post.
The problem for West Ham was that by exploiting City’s brief drop in focus, they made sure that it would not happen again. City looked so embarrassed and ashamed to have let West Ham back into the game – having been so dominant - that they came out for the second half with that relentlessness they have at their best. If the first half was one-way traffic, the second half was like that but sped up.
The most surprising part of the afternoon was that City only scored twice in a second half that was so one-sided it made the first half look like an even contest. Every few minutes Sterling was sprung in behind Evra and both of City’s goals came from his runs into that channel.
First Jesus picked Sterling out with a De Bruyne-level pass, Sterling held onto the ball in the box, and waited for Jesus’ run from deep. He rolled the ball back, Jesus skipped past Zabaleta with an immaculate finish and rolled in.
Then, Fernandinho brushed past Lanzini in the middle, again found Sterling on the right, again broke into the box, again took the return pass and finished. It was the simplest, cleanest goal of the goal. Beyond that, Sterling set up De Bruyne who should have done better, and should certainly have had a penalty when he was tripped by Cresswell.
It was a reminder that even in games when Sterling does not score he contributes far more now than he ever has done before. Three assists here, running that terrified West Ham, bravery to take risks and commit defenders and cool execution in the box. It was near enough to a complete performance.
Because while City, in one sense, have nothing to play for, this team is clearly driven by the simple pride in doing their jobs as well as possible, and leaving a legacy and a benchmark in the numbers they will set. They are on 102 goals and 93 points and they are now certainly to break the records in both. While their opponents, like West Ham today, are left helpless in their wake.
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