Manchester City hit four in breezing past West Ham

Manchester City have produced one of their best performances of the season in thrashing West Ham United 4-0 in their Premier League clash at the London Stadium.

Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Gabriel Jesus and Yaya Toure all got on the scoresheet as Pep Guardiola's team moved to within one point of second-place Tottenham Hotspur.

At the start of the year, City ran out 5-0 winners against West Ham in the FA Cup but the home side did enough in the first 10 minutes to suggest that things would be much closer this time around.

However, despite Michail Antonio looking a constant threat, his side soon fell behind after a mistake from Aaron Cresswell allowed De Bruyne to run at the West Ham defence and after receiving the ball back off Jesus, he fired the ball into the bottom corner.

Four minutes later, City doubled their lead through Silva, who was able to score from close range after Leroy Sane had done brilliantly to beat both Sam Byram and Jose Fonte before crossing for the Spaniard.

The visitors should have added a third through Raheem Sterling, who headed wide from eight yards, before up the other end, Cresswell squandered an opportunity to halve the deficit when firing over after running onto Andy Carroll's pass.

Just before half time, City effectively put the game beyond the reach of their opponents when an error from Pedro Obiang gave Silva the chance to play in Sterling, who provided a first-time pass for Jesus to find the bottom corner from six yards out for his first goal in English football.

After the restart, West Ham needed to change something but that did not materialise in terms of both personnel or tactics and it seemed only a matter of time before City netted a fourth.

Chances were few and far between during the opening 20 minutes of the second half but City did extend their advantage through Toure, who converted from the penalty spot after Sterling had been fouled by Fonte.

With the game over as a contest, the closing stages were played at a pedestrian pace and although Robert Snodgrass impressed after coming off the bench, he was not able to contribute a consolation goal for his new side as City comfortably held on for a rare clean sheet.

Peter Crouch hits 100th Premier League goal as Everton hold Stoke City

Peter Crouch became just the 26th player to reach a century of Premier League goals as Stoke City were held to a 1-1 draw by Everton at the bet365 Stadium this evening.

The former Liverpool player broke the deadlock early on with his landmark goal, but Ryan Shawcross turned the ball into his own net shortly before the interval to ensure that the spoils were shared.

It took just seven minutes for Crouch to bring up triple figures when Marko Arnautovic collected the ball over the top and slid the big striker in on goal, and he made no mistake to tap it home from close range, becoming the oldest Premier League centurion in the process.

The former England international delighted fans with his trademark robot celebration, but Stoke were soon under pressure as Everton went in search of a quick equaliser.

The Toffees, who came into the match having won their last three games with clean sheets in each, had their first decent sight of goal after 18 minutes when Romelu Lukaku found himself in space, but he dragged his long-range effort comfortably wide of the target.

It was soon evident that Crouch did not want to settle on 100 goals, and he came close twice in quick succession midway through the first half when first he looped a header into the arms of Joel Robles before fizzing a volley narrowly wide.

Everton hit back with an opening of their own when Bruno Martins Indi did just enough to put Seamus Coleman off inside the box, with the full-back only able to fire over the crossbar on his 200th league appearance for the club.

The Potters continued to threaten at the other end too, though, and should have doubled their advantage shortly after the hour mark when Arnautovic was found in the area by Charlie Adam, only for Robles to smother the Austrian.

Everton levelled things up shortly before half time, but the goal came in controversial circumstances after the officials initially seemed to flag Lukaku offside. However, referee Craig Pawson discussed matters with his linesman before awarding the goal due to the final touch coming off Shawcross while Lukaku was in an offside position.

Stoke should have restored their lead before half time when Arnautovic was played clean through on goal, but the forward opted against taking the ball around Robles and instead saw his effort kept out by the Everton keeper.

Yesterday West Ham-Manchester City . . . . . . . 0-4 Manchester United-Hull City . . . . . . 0-0 Stoke City-Everton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1

Standings

Chelsea Tottenham Arsenal Liverpool Man. City Man. United Everton West Brom Stoke City Burnley West Ham Southampton Watford Bournemouth M’sbrough Leicester Swansea Crystal Palace Sunderland Hull City 23 23 23 23 23 22 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 22

Championship 18 13 14 13 14 11 10 9 7 9 8 7 7 7 4 5 6 5 4 4 2 3 48 16 56 8 2 45 16 47 5 4 51 25 47 7 3 52 28 46 4 5 47 28 46 8 3 33 21 41 7 6 34 24 37 6 8 31 29 33 8 8 29 35 29 2 12 25 33 29 4 11 29 40 28 6 10 23 28 27 6 10 27 39 27 5 11 32 41 26 9 10 19 26 21 6 12 24 38 21 3 14 28 52 21 4 14 32 41 19 4 15 20 42 16 4 14 20 47 16 Yesterday Blackburn-Leeds .............................. 1-2 Burton-Fulham ................................ 0-2 Newcastle Utd-QPR ......................... 2-2

Standings

Brighton 27 18 6 3 43 18 60 Newcastle U. 28 19 2 7 56 23 59 Reading 29 17 4 8 42 37 55 Leeds 29 17 3 9 41 28 54 Huddersfield 27 15 4 8 32 30 49 Derby 28 13 7 8 30 21 46 Sheffield Wed 28 13 7 8 33 28 46 Barnsley 29 13 5 11 48 44 44 Fulham 28 11 10 7 46 32 43 Norwich 28 13 4 11 47 40 43 Preston 29 11 8 10 38 37 41 Birmingham 29 9 10 10 31 39 37 Brentford 28 10 6 12 37 35 36 Aston Villa 28 8 12 8 28 30 36 Cardiff 29 10 6 13 34 43 36 Wolves 28 9 8 11 37 38 35 Ipswich 29 9 8 12 29 37 35 QPR 29 9 7 13 29 41 34 Nottingham 29 9 6 14 40 47 33 Bristol City 28 8 4 16 37 41 28 Burton 29 7 7 15 28 40 28 Wigan 27 6 7 14 24 32 25 Blackburn 28 6 7 15 33 46 25 Rotherham 29 4 4 21 27 63 16

ITALY