Saturday 19th September 2015
City go into this game following their first defeat of the season in all competitions against Serie A Champions Juventus 2-1 in the Champions League. Not only was it their first defeat, it was the first time that their defence has been breached as well following five straight league wins with five clean sheets. City have won their last seven meetings against West Ham in league and cup, six of which have come in the Premier League. However City have never won their opening six games in the top flight of English football. Their current win record stands at 11 in 11 as they chase down Arsenal’s top flight record of 14 straight victories. A clean sheet would also give them a club record sixth consecutive shutout. The impressive stats don’t finish there for City as they have now recorded nine straight home wins including eight clean sheets in that time.
West Ham United have a 100% record away from the Boleyn this season having already secured a 2-0 win against Arsenal in the opening weekend and followed that up with a 3-0 win at Anfield so one imagines that they won’t be overawed in the slightest by taking City on in their current form. Slaven Bilić has installed into his team the fact that all records are there to be broken and it certainly worked at Anfield where the club picked their first win since 1952 and whilst the bookies make the club 8/1 to win today I can at least see West Ham becoming the first side to score against City this season. My worry is that with Adrián returning to the starting line-up for West Ham they look incapable of keeping a clean sheet. Mind you to his credit he did manage one at Arsenal but that’s hardly been the norm during his time with the club so far. Darren Randolph who has kept two clean sheets in the last two games whilst the Spaniard served his suspension will justifiably feel disappointed with having to drop back down to the substitutes bench.
City this season have been solid in all areas of the pitch and other than Chelsea who managed three shots on target in their 3-0 defeat, no other side has recorded more than two shots on target in the full 90 minutes. In fact Watford failed to register a single shot on target in their defeat. In total there have been just 8 shots on target against City in the 5 league games so far this season.
Manchester City have enjoyed the lion share of possession in every game this season bar the one against Chelsea and this will suit a West Ham side who are set up to counter attack especially away from home. Title wins are typified by the sort of display that we saw from City last weekend away to Crystal Palace when with the game still 0-0 after 90 minutes they never gave up and kept pressing and managed to come away with a 1-0 win. City of course won’t win every game between now and May but you do have to think that the biggest threat to Manchester City this season will come from Manchester City. José Mourinho may have claimed that City’s 3-0 win over Chelsea was a false result which the rest of the country knows wasn’t the case but one thing that is false is Chelsea’s league position. However as things stand they’re going to have to come up with an incredible run of consecutive wins if they want to be there or there bout’s come May. Personally I think that Arsenal look too lightweight to mount a challenge, whilst Manchester United look too lightweight at the back and will have to look to outscore opponents in the same way Tottenham did under Ossie Ardiles or Newcastle United when Kevin Keegan was in his first spell as Manager. Tottenham aren’t even at the races and the only race Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool seems to be in is to see who can get the sack first. No offence to the likes of West Ham, Leicester City, Crystal Palace et al but I don’t see any of the mid-sized clubs in the league being able to fully sustain a challenge at the top until May so as I say surely it’s City’s to lose based on early form. But let’s not forget following this game there are still another 32 to play so anything can happen.
West Ham have had some dreadful results against City in recent times including a 6-0 battering away from home a couple of seasons back in the League Cup semi-final but in fairness Allardyce’s side was that depleted with injury that he himself probably came close to having to lace his boots up and start the game. But what they have demonstrated this season in the games against Arsenal, Liverpool and home to Newcastle on Monday night is that they can let the opposition have the bulk of possession whilst they sit back and soak up the pressure before hitting sides with deadly consequences on the break. Three of West Ham’s five wins so far have come in this exact manner. Monday night against Newcastle we saw Dimitri Payet and Victor Moses cause some real headaches for the Newcastle defence with their runs and link up play but one thing that has really impressed me with the Hammers so far this season is just how clinical they have been with their attempts on goal.
No club has ever beaten Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City away in the Premier League but as I say Bilić firmly believes that records are there to be broken and with Vincent Kompany missing through injury for City, West Ham may not get that particular record but I do fully expect them to give City the biggest challenge they have had so far this season. My heart says the Hammers can win but my head says no with Adrián in goal however I have taken both sides to score.
Kevin de Bruyne starts for City after David Silva was injured in the warm up as Manchester City line up with the most expensive eleven ever to play in the Premier League. Cheikhou Kouyaté is missing for the Hammers.
City look up for this straight from the off and the first chance of the game comes to Eliaquim Mangala after 3 minutes but he aims his header straight at Adrián who for some reason elects to punch when he really could have just caught it from there. The Spaniard isn’t good for my nerves.
On six minutes Victor Moses picks the ball up from 35 yards and runs forward with purpose and swings his right peg and it’s gone in! Manchester City have conceded for the first time this season and I got funny looks from the guy walking down the road opposite the house as I shouted an expletive filled but very excitable celebration. Would you Adam and Eve it Manchester City 0 West Ham United 1.
572 minutes without conceding a single league goal and up pops Moses like a scene from the Bible and hammers that one home. I said it after Monday’s game and I will say it again here and now – Moses looks a class player and a real handful going forward. Chelsea’s loss this season will be West Ham’s gain for certain.
City almost find an equaliser in under two minutes as Adrián rushes out of his area and completely misses the ball leaving Sergio Agüero on the ball and two West Ham defenders running back towards the line. Somehow the Argentinean striker contrives to miss and didn’t even get his shot on target. That’s a massive let off for the Hammers.
Eleven minutes in and Mark Noble fouls Fernandinho. The referee plays advantage but goes back to warn the West Ham captain that this is his one for the game, the next will be a yellow card. This could be the longest match report I write all season at this rate.
Twelve minutes in and it’s another chance for city as debutant Nicolás Otamendi heads over the bar from a corner kick. With that beard he looks like he probably entered the stadium in a lumberjack shirt swinging an axe. Would kind of beat Mbemba and Thauvin‘s tux’s entrances at Newcastle hands down for me.
Eighteen minutes in and it’s surely no surprise that City are being allowed all the possession as West Ham look to hit their opponents on the break. It’s currently standing at 68% to 32%. Three minutes later and Manuel Lanzini goes into the book for what is technically known I believe as a tactical foul on Raheem Sterling which breaks down City’s attack.
OH MY WORD 31 minutes and it’s Manchester City NIL West Ham United TWO and my neighbours must be loving me right at this very moment in time. Liverpool at Anfield had started the season with three clean sheets, Manchester City had started with five straight clean sheets but West Ham didn’t care a single jot about either of those records. Up pops Diafra Sakho to double the amount of goals City have conceded in the league all season in the space of just 23 minutes. Look at me with the mathematics in all this excitement. I can’t remember what the goal looked like but I can do the maths and also tell you that Sakho is going to need treatment as he was injured in the process of scoring. It wasn’t Moses-esque but it doesn’t matter – they all count. This is like the Hatton Garden jewellery heist being replayed live in Manchester. The most expensive side EVER fielded in Premier League history and they’ve been ram raided. City don’t know what’s hit them.
How long can I ham this up before City score, equalise and take the lead I wonder.
On 38 minutes Jesús Navas tries his luck from long range but that’s punched away by Adrián. This really is a biblical story with Jesús and Moses on the pitch and West Ham still 2-0 up. Shame David Silva got injured in the warm up because I’d have dropped the surname and pretended there was a Goliath in the West Ham line up somewhere. I’m rambling, I’m excited, I’m sorry!
I’m not sure how long this excitement will last for as Bacary Sagna breaks down the right and crosses for Agüero who doesn’t really connect with the ball at the near post and Adrián gratefully dives on the ball and clings onto it for a few seconds. Four minutes to half time and Dimitri Payet who has had a relatively quiet game by his standards slips the ball into Sakho inside the City box but Mangala gets back with a last ditch tackle and takes the Hammers forward out at the same time. He looks in a lot of discomfort there. Bilić will be hoping his second goal scorer can run this off and get into half time for some more treatment.
One minute before half time and de Bruyne finds Agüero who hits the ball well over from 16 yards. It’s really not his day so far and he doesn’t look like he is anywhere near recovered from the injury he sustained against Crystal Palace last weekend. Four minutes of additional time indicated by the fourth official. Can West Ham going in to half time with their two nil lead intact.
The answer to that question was no, as de Bruyne picked up the ball in front of the West Ham area on the left and from pretty much the same range and area of the pitch as Moses goal (but on opposite sides) he looks up and pings the ball past the Spanish goalkeeper with consummate ease. That’s what you get when you pay £50 million plus for a player. He made that look ridiculously easy.
There’s still a chance City could go in level at this rate and there’s a hint of desperation about West Ham now as Pedro Obiang goes into the book for a foul on Yaya Touré. He certainly knew what he was doing there. Into the 50th minute as City have a corner following time added on for the foul on Touré but it comes to nothing as West Ham go in leading at half time against the league leaders.
Martín Demichelis has come on as a half time substitution for City replacing Mangala. One suspects he wasn’t the only one left feeling his challenge on Sakho just before half time. I have a feeling this is going to be a busy second half as City throw everything at West Ham. I might watch most of it behind by fingers like I used to watch Doctor Who when I was knee high to a grass hopper. Can the Irons hold on, can City go on to win their sixth game on the spin in the Premier League this season.
OK I wasn’t expecting to see West Ham go straight on the attack again with Moses but his effort after 30 seconds goes high and wide left of Joe Hart’s goal.
47 minutes on the clock and this is what I expected to see and it’s all City now and Touré puts his effort inches past the post. 48 minutes and Winston Reid concedes a corner when he was under no pressure whatsoever. It’s Reid again who forces his own goalkeeper into a save following Navas’ corner. Did I mention that it’s all City now by the way.
On 53 minutes Aleksandar Kolarov fouls Moses and goes in the referee’s book. I feel like a trainer whose fighter is taking an almighty beating and urge him to stay down for as long as possible before getting back up so everyone on the West Ham side can catch their breaths. This is the only breather they have had in the last 7 minutes of the game. That Moses effort after 30 seconds in the second half seems like weeks ago already.
55 minutes and Adrián pulls off an incredible one handed save with Touré charging through one on one with the goalkeeper. Somehow West Ham still lead this game 2-1. That was a sublime pass from Raheem Sterling to find Touré and he went past Reid like he wasn’t there and just pulled his way past Aaron Cresswell who went down on his knees looking like Willem Defoe on the cover of the Vietnam film Platoon. Surely it’s a case of when City score now and not if.
After 56 minutes the possession stats are now reading 78% to City and 22% to West Ham which I presume must be the second half one’s but I wasn’t fully paying attention hiding behind my fingers. 57 minutes and it’s a free kick to West Ham and another chance of a breather and waste a few more precious seconds though it seems a ridiculous notion to try to waste time with over half an hour to play but the Hammers are going to need to if they are to hold on here for all three points. The free kick is taken to Sakho who shoots first time and it goes agonisingly past Joe Hart.
West Ham are making a substitution and Moses is making way for another new boy in Michail Antonio who signed permanently from Nottingham Forest on transfer deadline day. The lad looks like he’s built like a tank as he runs onto the pitch and that’s compared to Moses who let’s be fair is well built. Given the size of him I think it’s easy to suggest that the Hammers manager is trying to add some more steel into his midfield for the remainder of this game.
On the hour mark the little Argentinean Agüero goes down in the box appealing for a penalty but his appeals are waved away. 61 minutes and an Otamendi shot is deflected out for a corner. 62 minutes and Touré misses from just 10 yards as his effort flashes past the post. Oh he should have scored there. 64 minutes and Adrián saves and another – this is relentless from City. Manuel Pelligrini introduces Wilfried Bony from the bench who replaces Sterling as City continue to look for this equaliser. 65 minutes and another City corner and immediately after it’s another. My note just read one word now – RELENTLESS.
66 minutes and this is the first time I think I can remember seeing the ball even enter Manchester City’s half in ten minutes. 68 minutes and it’s Touré again who shoots and the ball comes off Reid for another corner ball. I’ve seen a Sam Allardyce side hold out for a result against pressure like this against Chelsea but there cannot be two such miracles in life can there?
68 minutes and Lanzini is making way for Nikica Jelavić who is taller and stronger than the little Argentine. How West Ham could have done with the injured Kouyaté at this point in the game. 69 minutes – another City corner and again it comes to nothing.
70 minutes, that means there’s twenty minutes of normal time to go and the last 20 were already one of the longest I’ve ever lived through. I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. Liverpool by way of comparison didn’t offer a single shot on target against West Ham when they were 2-0 down and even let the Irons kindly score a third. I don’t think City will be that generous based on what I’ve seen so far today. 72 minutes and my notes just read BUS BUS BUS BUS BUS in big capital letters. I said against Liverpool that you couldn’t accuse West Ham of parking the bus that day but today they’ve brought up every double decker from the nation’s capital that they could find en route.
74 minutes and it’s another City corner and I’ve lost count. No I haven’t because I wasn’t counting but there’s been that many that I have no idea and quite frankly my nerves are shot to pieces and there’s still 16 minutes to go in this game. If this was World War II and they were trying to survive such an onslaught then there would have been utter carnage. There may have been a huge cheer from the away section as de Bruyne gives away a free kick but if there was I didn’t hear it because I was too busy cheering away to myself at the chance of catching my own breath.
75 minutes and Kolarov goes into the box and is brought down by Sakho of all people who is back defending as it really is a case of all eleven men behind the ball. No penalty however despite Kolarov’s appeals. He went down way to easy there.
76 minutes and Carl Jenkinson was maybe shot by a sniper as he goes down clutching his left ankle with no one around him as he clears the ball. Replays show he turned it and wasn’t shot but the city fans clearly think he’s play acting and a chorus of boo’s ring out for the lad who’s on loan from Arsenal for the second season on the trot.
Wow a full three minutes without writing anything down go by before Touré fouls Jelavić and now with 11 minutes to go West Ham need to put operation time waste fully into gear. The ball goes long and Hart fumbles it and there was almost a chance there of a third. You cannot blame Hart for maybe having had a snooze by the goalpost and been startled by the sight of the ball there he’s barely seen it all of the second half.
80 minutes another City corner but de Bruyne hits his shot high and wide. How long before West Ham start getting players booked for time wasting as they’re all at it now. 83 minutes and James Tomkins puts the ball out for ANOTHER CORNER. How many have City had.
85 minutes and last week’s hero from the bench Kelechi Iheanacho comes on for Kolarov and is presumably told to do the same as what he was last week which was namely just to go on and score. West Ham make a sub of their own as Jenkinson goes down on the ground and is pulled to his feet by his own captain Noble who points for the right back to go off as the club try to bring on James Collins’ in his place. Jenkinson is wincing as he hobbles off and he’s clapping the crowd and that’s another few more seconds wasted there. Ohhhhh fuck a duck Adrián pulls of a magnificent stop to save Otamendi’s effort on the line.
87 minutes and my notes simply read – I would be surprised if more than four West Ham players have been in City’s half during this second period. 88 minutes and Jelavić is fouled by Touré in the Hammers own box and no one is going to be in a hurry to take this. How on earth have City not scored in this second half. 89 minutes and it’s a chance to West Ham as Payet fires one in at Hart who turns it around for a West Ham corner. Have we had one of those in the second half? I don’t think so. Oh that’s cultured from Cresswell the left back who fouls a City player in their box and that’s just about it for normal time, just a case of how long is to be added now. FOUR MINUTES. Perhaps the referee is being overly generous to West Ham there as they must have wasted a good four minutes all told when they’ve had the opportunity in the second half. You’re supposed to add on thirty seconds for every substitute and considering one was made at half time that’s still two and a half minutes minimum to be added and with Jenkinson’s treatment and the Hammers general time wasting we should have been looking at five or six minutes. Why am I trying to add minutes when my heart is going like the clappers and my bum has been doing a 20p / 50p for the past half hour.
I can’t watch I’m just peeking and going by the sound waiting for the referee to blow his whistle for full time. There it is – WEST HAM HAVE WON! Arsenal, Liverpool, City – Your boys took one hell of a beating. OK maybe not City – How did West Ham survive that in the second half. Manchester City have lost a game but not because they played badly. Oh no on another day they will batter someone by a cricket score line but today they couldn’t find a way through one of the most resilient examples of defending you will ever see in the Premier League. The clubs masseurs are going to have their work cut out tonight as every player put their body on the line for that win. I’m not sure how they managed it in the end and I have no desire to ever watch that second half again but what counts is they did manage it and City have finally lost a game this season in the league. West Ham move up to second in the league table, final score Manchester City 1 West Ham United 2.
Two nil & we f**ked it up 