West Ham vs Manchester City: Champions waltz four past hapless Hammers

West Ham 0-4 Manchester City: Raheem Sterling stars as Pep Guardiola's side cruise to another routine victory

At around ten to three, the PA announcer at the London Stadium was getting enthusiastic about ‘an exciting match against Manchester City’. But once the game kicked off, the only excitement was among those who had bet exactly how many West Ham would score as Pep Guardiola’s men did to West Ham what they have done on every visit to this ground, and to many other teams at home and away.

In the end it was only four, three scored in a one-sided first half. David Silva put City ahead after 11 minutes, Raheem Sterling added a second eight minutes later, and Leroy Sane scored the third in the 34th minute. Job done, they took it easy in the second half, Sane shooting home in added time. But that still made it eight successive victories in all competitions for City, five wins out of five for Guardiola against West Ham, and four successive wins for City at the London Stadium, with an aggregate score of 16 goals for and only one against.

Manuel Pellegrini, the West Ham and, previously, City manager, had said that facing his old club for the first time would be ‘a special game,’ but he must have wanted it to end long before Andre Marriner blew the final whistle. His new team had cowered before City and their defenders froze at key moments, ignoring even the most basic of defensive obligations.

City soon settled into their usual short-passing groove, while it took West Ham almost six nervy minutes to penetrate City’s half before Michail Antonio was allowed to run through by a generous linesman and win a corner kick. The promising Grady Diangana forced another flag kick four minutes later as he threatened to squirm between Fabian Delph and the byline.

But within 60 seconds City were ahead. There was no challenge from a home defender as Kyle Walker made serene progress down the right, and when Sterling crossed low, Silva tiptoed between two claret-shirted statues – on second glance, Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena - to touch the ball past Lukasz Fabianski from well within the six-yard box. It was 2-0 after 19 minutes as Sane ambled past former City defender Pablo Zabaleta on the left and rolled the ball across goal for Sterling to nip in ahead of Diop and prod in.

Sterling scored one and assisted two (Reuters) (REUTERS)

But then, sudden and unexpected signs of life from the Hammers. First Antonio robbed Aymeric Laporte and set up Marko Arnautovic for a low shot that was smothered by a combination of Walker and goalkeeper Ederson. Then Arnautovic returned the favour for Antonio, whose powerfully-struck drive rebounded off the goalkeeper’s chest.

But City shrugged that off and two became three after 33 minutes. Fernandinho sent a diagonal pass out to Sterling on the right, he cushioned a volley into the centre, and Sane, completely unmarked, took one touch, sidestepped Balbuena’s attempt to recover, and rolled the ball past an unhappy-looking Fabianski.

Diangana, Arnautovic and Zabaleta worked a one-touch move down the West Ham right just before half-time that might have caused problems for some teams, but Laporte moved across to snuff out the danger.

Leroy Sane scored twice for the champions (Action Images via Reuters) (Reuters)

Sterling could have scored his second soon after the restart but Fabianski denied him and blocked Sane’s follow-up, and when Antonio galloped away onto a pass from Arnautovic, you wondered whether the game just might change. But although the forward’s shot beat Ederson’s left arm, it smacked off the outside of the post and away.

It was never going to be West Ham’s day and they finished the game a man short, Marko Arnautovic limping off to sympathetic applause with all three substitutes used. In injury time, Sane took Gabriel Jesus’ cross and smacked an angled shot past Fabianski and in off Aaron Cresswell.