EUROPEAN DOGFIGHT
West Ham 1 Manchester City 3
It’s the game even UEFA couldn’t organise. The UEFA European Conference League champions take on the UEFA Champions League winners. At London Stadium.
City come out of the traps like some feral American half breeds, and it takes Hammers about ten minutes just to slow them down to a pace where they can keep up with them. Areola is proving unviolatable with flung hands and flying saves, keeping out efforts from Silva and Haaland, with defenders guarding the posts whenever they sneak efforts beyond him.
As City push further and further up the pitch, so West Ham focus their passing into opposite spaces left and right, and it’s from one of these down the right that Coufal hits in a skimming cross a couple of feet off the ground that Ward-Prowse meets full on with a diving header beyond the sprawling Edison. The crowd go mad in disbelief at the success of the game plan, more so when the whistle goes for half time just ten minutes later.
I spend the break grabbing a tea, a veggie pie and a chocolate baked cookie. Food never tasted so good on the stomach of a half time lead over the best team in Europe. Second best. The conversation whirls in hushed half tones as the possibility of finishing the evening on top of the table above City hovers dangerously close.
Forty-six seconds into the second half and Jérémy Doku has cut into the area past Coufal and planted the ball into the corner of the net. The heads drop momentarily as moments from last season stutter uncomfortably into view. But we are awake again ten minutes later as Antonio is put through on goal, destined to restore the lead. Can I believe my eyes when he shoots straight at the keeper who beats the ball away to safety. A few minutes later and Ward-Prowse is pinging in a corner from the left which Zouma rises highest to head goalwards only to watch in disbelief as Edison beats the ball round the post with spectacular agility.
And that’s as close as West Ham get to restoring their earlier lead… City now have the shit between their teeth and are galvanising their talent in an assault on Areola’s goal. He watches curiously as a free kick pings off his crossbar, then he flies full length to keep out a Silva effort. He is finally beaten when Silva creeps round the back of the defence to outwit Aguerd and lob the ball over Areola. Hammers are now committing more players forward and eight minutes before time a cunning cross from the right finds Haaland at the far post who slots home.
Gone are the days where Hammers’ fans would hear the expressions ‘free hit’ about such a game, or where conceding four or five goals would be accepted. Things have changed, and Hammers can feel reasonably satisfied to have only lost to City this season. The visit to Liverpool next weekend will confirm whether or not this summary is justified.
13 Alphonse Areola, 33 Emerson, 4 Kurt Zouma (captain), 5 Vladimir Coufal, 19 Edison Álvarez, 27 Nayef Aguerd, 7 James Ward Prowse, 11 Lucas Paquetá, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 9 Michail Antonio
Substitutes: 8 Pablo Fornals, 18 Danny Ings, 14 Mohammed Kudus
Goalscorer: James Ward-Prowse
