THE BELL END
Manchester City 2 West Ham 1
Aguero!
Manchester City’s greatest scorer hasn’t scored a Premier League goal for over a year. Shouldn’t have said that. Still, he hasn’t played for four months.
Even so, West Ham make the first real inroads on eighteen minutes with a cross to the far post that Soucek just fails to set Antonio up to score from. The game is open, which is probably the best way West Ham have of getting something from the game. They certainly have plenty of the ball in the first half. Ben Johnson gets his first yellow of the season on 28 minutes when Riyad Mahrez gets past him, and within a couple of minutes Ruben Diaz heads past Randolph from a deep Kevin de Bruyne cross.
West Ham have got themselves into a top five slot quite a few times in my life. It’s a different kind of pressure for the Stam fan, suddenly forcing you to the edge of your seat, emphasising your uselessness as an observer, raising your pulse to an uncomfortable level. Effectively ninety minutes of the last five seconds of a desperately desired eBay purchase. How is anyone expected to handle that kind of pressure? But I could get used to it…
Not for the first time West Ham forge a break down the right, this one just before half-time, and Antonio controls and turns on the loose ball, his shot skidding just wide off Ederson’s right hand post. But it’s no false dawn. Fornals leads another break out and releases Coufal whose cross is diverted goalwards by Lingard and Antonio taps it in at the far post. Last opposition goal scored at the Etihad was on November 8th by Mohammad Salah. They hadn’t conceded a goal at home for twelve hours. That’s a whole waking day in lockdown.
Randolph injures his kicking foot early in the second half, but decides to play on. He’s had relatively little to do in the game, with the exception of picking the ball out of the back of his net. When City finally put a second half attack together, just before the hour, it’s a weird sense of the home side hitting on the break, but de Bruyne’s cross beats Randolph, Aguero and most of the Hammers’ defenders to end up wide for Johnson to chase out of defence. Even five minutes can seem a yawning acre of time in a game against this trophy- winning machine that Pep Guardiola has built. When Phil Foden comes on, it’s evidence that the manager isn’t going to surrender his win bonus that easily.
As the game develops and the score remains the same, West Ham introduce a minor swagger to their game, a confidence their league position merits, but one that precedes City’s second, Stones tucking away Mahrez’s well-placed cross with a controlled shot past Randolph. So you look at the table. West Ham can stay fourth even after a defeat if Manchester United get something at Chelsea. Always nicer to have your fate in your own hands, a phrase not to be deployed in the urinals. In the depths of injury time Lingard hits a ball to the far post and Issa Diop has a genuine chance for last second glory, but his powerful header is just wide of the post and Soucek’s outstretched leg.
Aguero? Who he?
35 Darren Randolph, 23 Issa Diop, 15 Craig Dawson, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 31 Ben Johnson, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Souček, 18 Pablo Fornals, 11 Jesse Lingard, 30 Michail Antonio
Substitutes: 9 Saïd Benrahma, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Scorer: 30 Michail Antonio
