4 January 2025
Man City 4 West Ham 1
Pep Guardiola’s side were looking to make it back-to-back wins as they welcomed West Ham to The Etihad. The defending champions are still trying to put things right after a dreadful run had seen them plummet down the table. They went into this game some fourteen points behind league leaders Liverpool and the manager had already written them off as title challengers.
The Hammers seemed an ideal visitor for the misfiring City, they have been shipping more than Amazon of late. Despite this, they had managed their best run under Lopetegui, that was until they received a hiding at home by Liverpool. Not many people would have had anything but a home win down on this one on their ‘Super 6’.
However, it was in fact the visitors who created the first chance of the game. West Ham played through the Man City defence as Kudus found himself wide in the penalty area with a sight of goal. It was a poor effort from the winger as he drilled it into the side-netting, not even testing Ortega in the process. They have become very wasteful in the final third with no Bowen.
Kudus was involved again as he got to the byline and cut it back to Soucek in the box. He took the shot on first-time and dragged it well wide of the target. It was a big chance for the visitors and the midfielder should have been working the keeper at the very least. You felt at this stage they could not afford to keep missing opportunities against Pep’s wounded animals.
Savinho has been in good form of late and was causing problems for The Hammers down the left. As his initial cross was cleared, the hosts recycled it well. He looked to drill a ball into the box but it took a huge deflection off Coufal and beat Areola who had committed to cutting out the cross. It nestled in the back of the net and gave Guardiola’s side the lead.
The Brazilian winger was involved again as he played it to Lewis outside the box. He rifled a shot at goal but Areola did well to turn it behind for a corner. Just before the interval Savinho beat Coufal to send a ball into the back post which was headed home by Haaland to double the hosts’ lead at The Etihad and it was hard to see a way back for Lopetegui’s side.
After the break Savinho ran at The Hammers’ defence again before laying it off into the path of Haaland. As both defender and keeper looked to close him down, the striker deftly chipped the ball over Areola to grab his second goal of the game. The Norwegian has a great record against West Ham and probably wishes he could play them every week.
With over half an hour remaining, West Ham made the cardinal sin we see often in the modern game. Trying to play out from the back, a loose pass gifted the ball to De Bruyne. As he made his way into the box, he unselfishly laid it off to Foden, who slotted it under the keeper to make it four-nil and you wondered how bad this would get for the visitors.
Bernardo Silva then tried to spread play out wide but gifted the ball to Wan-Bissaka. As The Hammers worked it out wide, Summerville crossed to pick out Fullkrug in the box, who calmly passed it into the bottom corner for what seemed like no more than a consolation goal for the visitors. It by no means made the scoreline look respectable however.
Pep Guardiola is experienced enough to know that all is still not right with his side. They may have put two wins together in as many games but they were still being opened up by teams far too easily. No doubt the Spaniard will feel the need to add reinforcements during the transfer window but any investment will all depend on how the owners see their recent court case being resolved.
The reality of the season ahead is that Man City can only challenge for the Premier League title if Liverpool hit a bad run of form. Even then they need to keep winning to reduce the gap between the pair. While they have had comfortable victories against Leicester and West Ham, there are far tougher challenges to provide obstacles ahead of them.
The Hammers should have reduced the deficit when Fullkrug held the ball up well before laying it off to Summerville in the box. His standing leg seemed to slip as he let fly and his effort went high behind the goal. It would have made for a nervy end to the game for the hosts had Lopetegui’s side added another at this stage.
They almost scored again when Paqueta fired a snapshot off at goal with Ortega completely beaten but sadly the ball narrowly missed the far post. On paper this will seem like a routine win for Man City but had the visitors been more clinical this could have been a very different scoreline. They had created enough to come away with a win, despite having conceded four goals.
Not that any of this will matter to Man City. The win saw them move up to sixth place in the Premier League table and only two points behind Chelsea in fourth place. They need to put a run together before they hit February where a difficult month of fixtures will see them play Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. Guardiola admitted after the game that they were a long way from being back to their best.
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