NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Sterling hat-trick in emphatic win leaves no doubt City are title favourites, and yet amazingly Guardiola insists it is...
HOW to improve on a treble? Simple: be more ruthless, more exquisite, and even more clinical than before. For all the talk of the inequality of Norwich City being swept aside at Anfield on Friday night, this was even more emphatic.
West Ham are meant to be Premier League middleweights with aspirations of taking on the heavyweights. Yet they were floored, on the canvas and imploring their trainer to throw in the towel by the end.
Not that Pep Guardiola saw it that way. You might have thought it was pretty much the perfect start to the season. ‘In terms of result, yes,’ he replied. In terms of performance? ‘Nope.’ Eyebrows were raised around the room. Mid-table Premier League managers could almost be quaking. What precisely hadn’t he liked about his 5-0 away win at the London Stadium?
‘ First half we were sloppy in our passes, our passages [of play] weren’t precise and our passes were not good,’ he said. ‘But that’s normal. I knew it. We thought about that before. First game, away, 12.30, hot….’ He has clearly been in Manchester too long. Even by the standards of an average English summer, it was not hot.
‘We didn’t have the rhythm. But that’s normal, being the first game. Second half from the beginning we saw we would be better; more calm, more extra passes. And after the game was between 0-3 it was over.’
In short, City need to do better than this. ‘We have to, yes,’ said Guardiola. ‘But that’s normal. And I know we’re going to get it. I understand completely being a little bit imprecise in our game.’ Then, finally, almost as an afterthought, came the praise. ‘But I can’t deny I’m so delighted, 0-5 and away first game. We finished with winning 14 games in a row last season in the Premier League and now 15, so it’s good.’
Now for the really scary part of that analysis. He was right. City will play better than this. They were sluggish in the opening 20 minutes by their standards, with not enough pace in their passing. Jack Wilshere was pressing with gusto and Declan Rice looked poised in midfield. By contrast, Rodri looked a little bemused. You could almost believe there might be the glimmer of a contest in the game.
Yet, with the help of VAR, whose interventions were frequent, lengthy yet ultimately hard to argue with, City swatted West Ham aside with disdain. It won’t just be the new kids on the block who are overwhelmed by the new superpowers of English football.
One hundred points seemed exceptional two years ago and scoring 98 last season pretty remarkable; it may just be the new norm.
The impossible thing with City is they can play at half speed, as they did early on, and still pick you apart in a 30second spell of slick, precise football. It is probably harder than it looks. But it seems as if they are merely toying with opponents.
There was another notable feature of their display here: Raheem Sterling, Last season he scored 25 goals, 23 the season before. Guardiola talks about him ultimately inheriting the central striker’s role in the same way that Lionel Messi graduated from a wide position to being the main man in his Barcelona side.
Here Sterling had three chances and scored a hat-trick. That wouldn’t have been the case two years ago. Even last week, he hesitated against Alisson in the Community Shield. Here he was at another level. ‘Since we started the season in China, he has scored one goal minimum in every single game,’ said Guardiola. ‘The second goal, the control was not good, but the finish good. The third goal was much better than the one-against-one situation against Liverpool. So that’s good.
‘ It happened against Alisson, he missed the action. He learned from that. That’s nice. To see these guys, 23, 24, to learn from this and next action I’m pretty sure he thought about that. “I’m going to be more clinical, more aggressive”. That’s why he scored a hat-trick.’
City were fortunate perhaps in their first goal after 25 minutes — though the passage of play from the goal kick that led up to it was precision personified — in that Kyle Walker’s cross deflected off Pedro Obiang and on to Gabriel Jesus’ knee and in.
Thereafter, they were just a class above. On 51 minutes, West Ham lost the ball inside City’s half. A more robust side wouldn’t have allowed Kevin De Bruyne to stride unchallenged through the midfield. Sterling was the beneficiary, running on to a perfectly weighted pass and finishing decisively.
Soon a brilliant Silva flick played in Sterling, who squared for Jesus to score. The lure of the Westfield bar and food courts seemed irresistible at this point for many. No one relishes watching their team humiliated.
Yet VAR intervened. It seemed Sterling had strayed a millimetre offside. There was delay of almost two minutes before the decision was announced and the goal overturned. It was greeted with huge cheers, like the fresh awakening of lost hope.
And for a while West Ham played as though that were the case. Obiang headed over from a Robert Snodgrass ball and Ederson performed a superb double save from Chicarito and Manuel Lanzini. But it really was all over on 75 minutes, when Riyad Mahrez lifted a pass over the defence for Sterling to score calmly — his 50th in the Premier League for City. There was another lengthy VAR check; if anything this looked more offside yet stood.
Now the lure of Westfield proved impossible to ignore for most home fans. There was time for another VAR intervention when Obiang fouled Mahrez in the box on 83 minutes. Sergio Aguero’s penalty was an awful, weak strike at Lukasz Fabianski. Yet Rice had encroached in the penalty area to clear the ball away, so are-take was ordered. You cannot really give Aguero two chances at a shot from 12 yards. He didn’ t fail second time around.
By the time Sterling added the fifth, his hat- trick, in injury time, played in by Rodri, in his pomp by now, the stadium had pretty much emptied apart from the small knot of City fans.
It felt an exhibition game by then. In many ways it was.