City starts in style to hammer Hammers

RAHEEM Sterling scored a hat-trick as Manchester City began the defence of its English Premier League title with a crushing 5-0 win at West Ham yesterday.

Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring, Sterling scored twice and Sergio Aguero netted a penalty before Sterling rounded things off with the fifth as City picked up where it left off last season. Tottenham came from behind to beat Aston Villa while Sheffield United picked up a point on its return to the top-flight.

City started slowly at West Ham, but three goals in the last 15 minutes sealed a convincing start to its title defence.

“Overall for the first game, it is an incredible result,” City manager Pep Guardiola said.

“The first half was not good. We didn’t control second balls and lost a lot of balls. Second half was much better. More calm, but still we have many things to improve.”

West Ham had a couple of half-chances before Jesus scored t he opener on 25 minutes and Sterling made it 2-0 just after halftime.

Sterling then had a goal ruled out by the VAR — video assisted referee — for off-side, but the England striker made amends with his second goal on 75 minutes. The VAR was then used again when Aguero saw his penalty saved by Lukasz Fabianski, but the kick had to be retaken because Declan Rice had encroached into the penalty area and made the resultant clearance. Aguero made no mistake second time round and Sterling rounded off things with the fifth as City scored three late on.

Tottenham trailed Aston Villa to a John McGinn firsthalf goal, but record signing Tanguy Ndombele equalised on 73 minutes. Harry Kane then scored twice, in the 86th and 90th minutes.

Billy Sharp scored an 88thminute equaliser to give Sheffield United a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth as it returned to the Premier League for the first time since 2007.