CITY RATED BY STUART BRENNAN

ZACK STEFFEN

Alert to palm away a stinging Noble shot, and no major alarms in passing it around at the back.

KYLE WALKER

Linked up with Mahrez and overlapped a couple of times, but it all looked a bit halfhearted.

JOHN STONES

Can’t do any more than this kind of solid, assured defending coupled with slick, precise passing.

NATHAN AKE

Doesn’t have the solid presence of Ruben Dias or the build-up of Stones and Aymeric Laporte.

ALEKS ZINCHENKO

Great block on Yarmolenko’s shot capped a very assured return to action in his usual left-back role.

FERNANDINHO

Rolled back the years by giving City a firm foundation, sniffing out trouble repeatedly.

ILKAY GUNDOGAN

Did more than most to get the Blues rumbling, but his shooting boots deserted him against the Hammers.

KEVIN DE BRUYNE

Always involved, but the fine margins are not his friend at the moment - nothing came off.

RIYAD MAHREZ

One of those nights where nothing came off for him – the crosses hit the first man, the shots were sliced.

COLE PALMER

Ballooned his big chance over the bar but some of his link-up play was superb, and he grew into the game.

RAHEEM STERLING

Repeatedly got into great positions and started to make them count. Teed up Palmer for the big chance.

SUBSTITUTES

JOAO CANCELO (FOR WALKER, HT): Couple of sloppy mistakes, great penalty. 6

PHIL FODEN (FOR MAHREZ, 71): Couldn’t change it, poor penalty. 5

GABRIEL JESUS (FOR PALMER, 76): No time to mark.

JACK GREALISH (FOR DE BRUYNE, 82): No time to mark.

NOT USED: Carson, Dias, Laporte, Rodrigo, Edozie.