SNOW JOKE
Manchester City 2 West Ham 1
Manchester has a reputation for rain, but this afternoon it’s snow that provides an additional encumbrance to this away fixture against last season’s Premier League champions.
West Ham come out of the traps looking on the pace and Antonio immediately finds Benrahma clear in plenty of space but the ball escapes his control as it skids from under his stride. Then minutes later Antonio breaks free in the area in a similar position, but again the ball flies off the snowy surface to safety. Mahrez then gives City the lead in their first real attack. Luckily VAR finds him offside. As Clips might have said, Hahahahahahahaha.
History dictates that if you don’t put away one of your first couple of chances in an away game, possession and the legacy nature of games on the road dictate that you will be heading on the road to defeat. Which is a forty word way of preparing you for City’s opener, a tap in from the captain Gündogan after Hammers fail to clear a cross that skids swiftly off the snow-lined surface.
After City’s opener, it becomes a desperate fight for visibility and control, which the home side often seem as likely to struggle with as the Hammers. An extended half-time period sees all hands on deck with City’s ground staff clearing the pitch to render the second half less hazardous, once the snow has stopped falling. Both sides make more of a decent fist of controlling the ball in the difficult conditions, and play the majority of the second half in the middle of the pitch until Fernandinho seals the game in the ninetieth minute with an intelligent finish from the centre of the area. Manuel Lanzini, a late second half substitute, scores the goal of the game deep into injury time, which unfortunately counts for little other than aesthetic beauty. It also brings a rare pearl of commentary from the MotD reporter: ‘The player they call the jewel has scored a gem.’
Slim pickings though from West Ham’s second successive defeat on the road in 2021-22.
1 Lucasz Fabiański, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Kurt Zouma, 31 Ben Johnson, 23 Arthur Masuaku, 41 Declan Rice (c), 15 Craig Dawson, 28 Tomas Souček,, 8 Pablo Fornals, 9 Michail Antonio, 22 Saïd Benrahma
Substitutes: 5 Vladimir Coufal, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Goalscorer: Manuel Lanzini
