WEST HAM 0, MANCHESTER CITY 4
Manchester City kept up their unrelenting pace at the top of the Premier League with another win, this time 4-0 at the London Stadium over West Ham.
Goals by David Silva, Raheem Sterling, and a double by man-of-the-match Leroy Sane despatched a West Ham side managed by former City boss Manuel Pellegrini who was facing the club with whom he won the Premier League in 2014 for the first time.
Current boss Pep Guardiola match plans had been hit by injuries to Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva but their replacements Fabian Delph Ilkay Gundogan slotted in admirably alongside Nicolas Otamendi who was starting his first game since September.
The game was over as soon as the 34th minute after Leroy Sane had scored the first of his two goals to make it 3-0 in a scintillating opening half for the Champions.
David Silva had earlier clipped the ball past Lucasz Fabianski after taking advantage of a deflected Raheem Sterling cross to open the scoring after 11 minutes.
And Sterling doubled that advantage from three yards out on 19 minutes when Sane’s cutback found him.
The England winger returned the favour after 34 minutes with an elegant cross to Sane whose turn left both Fabian Balbuena and Fabianski on their backsides before slotting in City’s third from four yards out.
Both Sterling and Sane were denied by Fabianski as West Ham tried to steady the ship against a rampant City.
With a Champions League trip to Lyon on Tuesday, it was understandable that City took their foot off the gas after the break with the game as good as won.
West Ham came back into the game in the second half but couldn’t score a consolation despite seeing a header go wide by Balbuena and hitting the woodwork through Michail Antonio after he had already been denied by Ederson in the first half.
It was left to Sane to lash in a fourth in stoppage time after Gabriel Jesus had crossed the ball from the right for the German to give the scoreline a very blue gloss – their 40th goal in 13 Premier League games this term.
The Hammers may have to play at least part of the remainder of their season without star forward Mark Arnautovic though.
The Austrian had deliberately fouled Delph and Silva earlier in the game to try and unsettle them but himself could be missing a chunk of the Hammers’ season after going off with a nasty looking knee injury following a tough but fair Otamendi tackle late on.