THE VERDICT: WEST HAM 0 CITY 4
THIS was City’s fourth trip to the London Stadium and each of the past three has been significant for Pep Guardiola’s side.
In January 2017, the FA Cup offered early reassurance to a manager facing questions about whether his players could adapt to his demands. A month later saw Gabriel Jesus’s first league goal and earlier this year City hit 100 goals for the season in a 4-1 win that saw Raheem Sterling underline his terrific threat with three assists.
Saturday’s game told us nothing new, other than poor defending is never going to get you anywhere against a team as good as this.
Guardiola said before the game that even a blind person could tell how Manuel Pellegrini sets his sides up, and anyone who sat through the last two years of his time at the Etihad will have felt nostalgic pangs at a team that were easy on the eye and too often without all manner of shape, organisation and effort at the back.
It had been a bright start from the hosts, but after just 11 minutes David Silva was allowed to stroll through a sea of players into the six-yard box to knock in Sterling’s flat cross. Shortly afterwards, Leroy Sane beat Pablo Zabaleta for pace and centred for Sterling to tap in. The two then switched roles as the England international volleyed neatly for Sane to control in the middle of the box and slide home. It was all too easy. This City team can produce great things but they could have scored their goals with blindfolds on for each individual knows where his team-mates are going to be and so often they slice open defences in this way. Not that it should bother any Blue in the slightest. Easy wins are welcome any time, and certainly as the most gruelling period of another gruelling year gets underway. Every key moment aside, West Ham put up a fight and there were signs that the concentration in defence can still be improved. Having conceded penalties in their last two league games, it was Ederson’s turn to bail out his defence as he saved a Marko Arnautovic effort from point blank range before the break and after it pressured Michail Antonio enough for the forward Simon Bajkowski 69% 1 9 None Silva (11), Sterling (19), Sane (43, 93) 31% 9 8 None 56,886 None Andre Marriner to only find the woodwork. That Guardiola waited until the 70th minute before making his first substitution showed a reluctance to rest his stars for Lyon on Tuesday night, or give fringe players minutes for nothing.
But City do not need to be mesmerising for 90 minutes because even when they are far from their best – as was the case in the second half – bursts of quality are nearly always enough.
Where past trips to West Ham have told us something new about Guardiola’s side, this simply reaffirmed what is common knowledge these days – City are the team to beat in the Premier League.