Silva service
Another late show as superb Silva strike snuffs out spirited Hammers
He leaves it late but it’s 20 wins on spin for City
FOR nearly an hour at the Etihad, the only players Pep Guardiola must have felt like grabbing around the neck were his own.
Manchester City had been frustrated again. For the third time in a week, here was hope for the rest of the Premier League that the title race is not all but over.
Held at bay by a spirited West Ham side and some quite wonderful goalkeeping from Adrian, a cumbersome City were not only in danger of surrendering their long winning run, but even suffering a first home defeat in any competition for exactly a year.
But after scoring a late winner at Huddersfield, and an even later one against Southampton, Guardiola’s side did it again. When you have the calibre of squad he does, that will always be a possibility.
There were 83 minutes on the clock when Kevin De Bruyne swung a pass languidly over the top of the West Ham defence as City camped on the edge of their opponents’ box.
David Silva read the flight of it better than anyone and stretched out a leg to divert the ball just past the despairing Adrian. Guardiola’s celebration wasn’t quite as manic as Wednesday night, but we are getting used to the sight of City celebrating late goals.
This time it was West Ham’s turn to suffer. They felt their performance deserved better than this.
It will have taken the wind out of Manchester United’s sails again, too. Three times in a week they have seen their hopes dashed of cutting City’s lead at the top.
Instead, 24 hours after an epic win at Arsenal, United realised they will go into the Old Trafford derby next weekend still eight points adrift of their neighbours.
Of all clubs, they know what these late goals can do to their rivals. ‘I heard about the Fergie Time,’ said Guardiola (below) with a smile.
It’s a belief that grows. The fans believe, the players believe. Eventually, crucially, the opposition start to believe it too.
But it was hard to fault West Ham’s performance here, even if David Moyes has now lost three of his first four games in charge.
They absorbed the pressure quite comfortably by getting men behind the ball with discipline and determination, and then exposed City’s vulnerability on setpieces.
Guardiola again complained about ‘opponents who don’t want to play’ but what does he expect? What the Spaniard perhaps failed to appreciate when he accosted Southampton’s Nathan Redmond on his way off the pitch on Wednesday night, urging him to be more positive, is that teams have little choice but to play this way against City. No doubt encouraged by the efforts of Huddersfield and Southampton, Moyes dug in as well and it so nearly paid off. In a disjointed first half, Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker and Leroy Sane were reduced to firing from distance. Another hopeful effort from Silva took a nick off Declan Rice and forced Adrian to make an excellent tip over. It was one of many fine saves by the Spaniard, who staked his claim for a regular starting place on a day when Joe Hart was ineligible to play against his parent club.
Despite having only 27 per cent of possession, West Ham created the better chances for Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini before taking the lead in the 44th minute. A short corner was played back to Aaron Cresswell, who swung the ball into the box. Angelo Ogbonna reacted quicker than Nicolas Otamendi, rising in front of the City defender to meet it with a downward header that Ederson could only help on its way into the net.
Guardiola threw a water bottle to the floor in silent indignation but it’s fair to say the City boss was not so quiet at half-time.
On went Gabriel Jesus, who has not lost a club match in Brazil or England for more than a calendar year, and he helped set up an
equaliser 12 minutes after the restart. Adrian did well to beat away De Bruyne’s free-kick but City came again down the right. Sterling flicked the ball into the path of Jesus, who dragged it to the edge of the six-yard box. Otamendi had stayed up and got there in front of Rice to turn home his fourth goal of the season even though the final touch came off the West Ham defender. City’s tails were up.
Adrian produced two saves from Sane and another from Jesus, but there was nothing he could do about Silva’s winner. West Ham were desperately close to an equaliser when Diafra Sakho fired wide in added time, but City had done it again.
Is there any stopping them?