Man City start the new season with a 5 star performance against West Ham
The rise of Raheem Sterling is partly due to Pep Guardiola at Man City
Defending champions Manchester City start the new campaign by brushing aside West Ham Utd 5-0 in the London stadium. Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring to give Man City a slender first half lead. In the second half, Manchester City were simply irresistible with Raheem Sterling bagging a hattrick and Aguero scoring from the penalty spot.
West Ham were in the game for 20 minutes but barely threatened the Champions. Walker used his pace to beat West Ham skipper Cresswell and launched a cross, which was tucked in by Gabriel Jesus.
Cresswell struggled to deal with the pace of Walker and the quick feet of Mahrez through out the match. The Algerian came close to extending City’s lead with a shot that smashed the side-netting.
De Bruyne called Fabianski into action by launching a shot from outside the box. The keeper managed to hold the ball that was struck with some venom. West Ham Utd’s new recruit Sebastian Haller got his first shot in the Premier League on target with a bicycle kick that was straight at Ederson. West Ham’s pressure was starting to fade towards the end of the first half and Man City were starting to find spaces.
The Champions stepped up the tempo in the second half. Gabriel Jesus won the ball for City in their own half and released De Bruyne who used his pace to dribble the ball into open space before squaring to Raheem Sterling who extended City’s lead to two.
VAR was called into action to deny City’s third goal which was the end-product of some slick passing. Zinchenko’s pass was flicked by David Silva towards Sterling who rolled the ball to Jesus. The new City number 9 finished the move by tapping the ball into an empty net. The goal was ruled out as Sterling was offside by the tiniest of margins.
West Ham had a glorious opportunity to reduce the deficit but Ederson made a remarkable double-save to deny West Ham a goal. First the Brazilian blocked Hernandez’s powerful header and the rebound from Lanzini was heading towards the corner. Ederson reacted in time and had to fully stretch to punch the ball away.
Sterling made a brilliant run to receive Mahrez’s lofted ball into the box. The winger controlled it with his chest and lobbed the ball over Fabianski into the goal. VAR checked for offside and confirmed there was none!
Sergio Aguero who came in as substitute extended City’s lead to four from the penalty-spot. The Argentine’s initial tame effort was saved by Fabianski but VAR ruled it out as Declan Rice rushed into the box before Aguero kicked the ball. In second attempt, Aguero smashed the ball into the bottom left-corner of the goal.
In stoppage time, Mahrez released Sterling on the right and the English winger took a touch and slotted the ball home to claim the first hattrick of this season and the match-ball.
Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham have a credible chance of finishing in the top half of the table but they were made to look less than ordinary by this fabulous Manchester City side managed by Pep Guardiola. Man City have started the season just as they finished the previous campaign – with a five star performance.
LosMejor's Editorial Team includes a team of experts who cover the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and the Carabao Cup. The Editorial team is headed by Deepak Selvan.
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