Sane leads City cruise past slack West Ham
If there was one image that encapsulated the total superiority of Manchester City in an embarrassing first half at the London Stadium, it was Fabian Balbuena and Lukasz Fabianski, West Ham United’s defender and goalkeeper, lying on their backsides as Leroy Sane walked in City’s third goal.
As Sane twisted his hips in the West Ham penalty area, Balbuena and Fabianski simply fell at his feet. It was so easy for the City winger that, frankly, it was almost uncomfortable to watch. In only 34 minutes, this game had been stripped of all significance, purpose and intensity. It was reduced from a potential dust-up into little more than a half-hearted shrug of a match.
This was half an hour of football that provided further evidence to those who claim that City are destroying the Premier League’s much-lauded competitiveness. Good luck selling a mismatch as obvious as this to emerging markets on the other side of the planet, they will say, but to put this all down to City’s undoubted brilliance would be to let West Ham off the hook. The truth is that Manuel Pellegrini’s side, who mustered all the fight of an ageing Labrador in the first half, more than played their part in this cringeworthy affair.
It took West Ham 20 minutes to realise that a bit of energy might come in handy against Pep Guardiola’s strolling schemers. Marko Arnautovic snapped into a tackle and forced a fine block from Kyle Walker, while Michail Antonio went close after a sharp counterattack. By this point, though, they were already trailing to two of the easiest goals City will score this season.
City’s dominance was no surprise, of course, even if their supremacy was far more obvious than the home fans were expecting. This was their fourth match at the London Stadium, and Sane’s second goal, in the final minute, was their 17th here.
Guardiola was not even that impressed with his side, which felt doubly damning for West Ham. “It was not our best performance,” he said. “West Ham had chances and don’t score. We were quite lucky, but we will come back to our best.”
For Pellegrini, it was the nature of the goals that stung the most. “We were very weak in defending the first three,” he said. “Manchester City have very good players, but those goals were too easy for them.”
West Ham did improve a little after the break. Antonio even hit a post after a fine pass from substitute Javier Hernandez, but it is not like they could have got much worse.
The damage started early, with David Silva allowed to amble behind the West Ham back four and tuck home Raheem Sterling’s cross. Sterling scored the second himself with the sort of back-post tap-in, from Sane’s delivery, that is becoming his trademark.
The second triggered West Ham to try and do something to disrupt City’s flow. It worked for a while until the visitors counter-attacked again. Fernandinho clipped the ball to Sterling, whose cross allowed Sane to take a touch, drop a shoulder and stare down in puzzlement at the prone Fabianski and Balbuena before rolling it in. He could have stopped to tie his shoelaces or send a few emails.
“We never had doubts about Leroy, even when he did not play,” Guardiola said. “He is young. Sometimes it’s up and down. It’s normal.”
Bruised and shamed, West Ham limped into the second half, when the home fans decided they might as well have a sing-song. Why not? Antonio struck the post, and there were even a couple of corners, too.
Pellegrini was pleased with the response, at least. “It’s not easy when you are losing 3-0 against Manchester City,” he said. “But we had the personality to play.” City were always capable of turning it up a notch, though. Ilkay Gundogan and Sterling both went close, before Sane fizzed a late fourth into the far corner.