My mind has always done funny things when playing a top club. I’m calmer. More at ease with whatever the day may bring. Because I start the day depressed and accept anything good as a pleasant surprise. By contrast, matches against clubs I feel we need to get something from usually fill me with terror. Today was different. Unlike many on Twitter who were oozing with confidence, I had no expectations. I figured we would lose. But unlike the recent embarrassing capitulations at The Etihad, I expected West Ham to give everything they had. If it wasn’t enough to get a result, so be it. We would at least head back to London with our heads held high and some lessons learned. As it turned out, the lesson we all learned was that we could be on the verge of a very special and fun season.
The opening minutes saw West Ham as the aggressor. Payet sent Sakho through with a tidy pass, and he sent the ball over the area to Moses on the right, but City closed down on their disorganized start and cleared. City responded with Sagna on the right hand side. He crossed to De Bruyne, whose shot was deflected out for a corner. The ensuing set piece found Mangala in the box but Adrian did well to punch it out of danger.
Even the most optimistic supporter would not have put any money on West Ham scoring early against a City team that hadn’t allowed a single goal in the Premier League. In the 6th minute, West Ham started a counter with Obiang passing to Lanzini. The man they call The Jewel flipped a pass to Payet, who found Moses 30 yards out and utterly alone. Two steps to his right, and my fantasy man let loose a low shot that beat Joe Hart and hit the bar at the bottom of the net. The Etihad was so quiet you could actually hear the clang of that bar.
Man City 0, West Ham 1.
I can’t remember the exact year, but in the 90’s we went to Old Trafford and got pummeled 7-1. But West Ham opened the scoring that day. Wanchope, I think. I was at the pub in Manhattan watching, and after the goal someone turned to me and said “they’re going to destroy us now because we made them mad”. Over the next few minutes, City seemed downright furious. In the 9th, Cresswell looked like he might repeat his mare against Bournemouth when his defensive header went right to Aguero, who ran at Adrian and then around him. Perhaps it was divine intervention, but his shot rolled wide. A minute later, De Bruyne ran menacingly down the left before Tomkins got a toe in to poke it away. Two minutes later, Aguero won another corner trying to spin away from Reid at the top of the box. Navas sent the corner into the box but Otamendi’s attempt went over the bar.
If we wanted to make a motion picture based on this game, the title would likely be Blocked By Reid. The number of times De Bruyne found Aguero in the box only for Reid to get in the way would probably take three hands to count. It happened in the 18th minute for sure, and a dozen or so more times throughout the match.
West Ham finally sent the action in the other direction in the 22nd minute when Sakho stole the ball from Fernandinho and broke into the City half. But with no support getting there quickly enough he lost possession. City came back down, and two minutes later Navas tried to beat Reid but the would be brick wall stood firm and knocked the ball to safety. Then Sagna tried a cross from the right, and had Sterling been two feet taller he might have gotten his head there.
We are so accustomed to feeling hard done by referees it’s with very little to no guilt that we can all say that in the 31st minute, after a decent spell of possession, West Ham were awarded a corner that should have been a throw in. Reid got his head on the corner, but only slightly. Obiang worked hard to keep it alive in front of Hart, which prevented City from clearing. The ball rolled to Sakho who guided it more than shot it behind Hart.
Man City 0, West Ham 2.
City continued to pile on the pressure, however, and had more than a few chances. In the 39th minute, De Bruyne again found himself with the ball on the right side of the area. This time he passed to Navas who let loose. Adrian made the save but pushed the ball right to Sterling on the left, who then slid a pass to Aguero but his shot went high and wide. A minute later, some unseen force intervened again when Sagna found Aguero right in front of Adrian. The Argentine had two cracks at it from point blank range. Adrian saved both.
It’s a cliché used in pretty much every sport. “It’s a game of inches”. In the 43rd minute, West Ham came inches away from a 3-0 lead when Payet sent Sakho in on goal with a lovely through ball. Mangala made a vital tackle from behind, getting nothing but the ball despite protests from every West Ham supporter in the cosmos.
In first half added on time, the De Bruyne – Aguero tandem hooked up yet again. Only this time the roles were reversed, and Aguero was on the right and passed to De Bruyne near the top of the area. The 57 million pound man (or whatever the hell it was) fired a low shot that beat Adrian to his right.
Halftime. Man City 1, West Ham 2.
The reality of the second half was that there was so much pressure put on by City, and so much defending done by Reid and others, that if I wrote about all of it this report would be more like James Joyce than a football article.
In the 48th minute, Toure and Fernandinho worked a one two before Toure let a low shot go that went wide, but was close enough to cause a few heart flutters. A minute later Reid cleared out another Navas cross for a corner. The corner itself read the same way. In by Navas, out by Reid. Two minutes later Sterling crossed to Toure but his shot was blocked by Tomkins. Moses finally took the pressure off for his new club when he tried to break but was taken down by Kolarov, who was shown a yellow card.
Man City kept up their relentless pressure in the 55th minute when Sterling fed Toure coming in through the middle. He muscled past Cresswell, but Adrian came out and beat him to the ball. Minutes later it was Sakho’s turn to break in on goal on a brilliant pass from Payet and Hart’s turn to come out. Sakho tried to put the ball past the City keeper but his weak shot went wide.
In the 65th minute, a cross from Navas hit Adrian and came close to going in for an own goal. De Bruyne then played in Navas but Adrian was able to push the ball wide at the near post.
I love Diafra Sakho. For some reason I knew he would come good after Sam tried to sabotage the move in favor of Wickham. But sometimes I want to shake him out of frustration. In the 67th minute, he found himself all alone on the right side of the City penalty area. He could have moved in on goal, forcing the defender to commit. He could have waited for help. But no. He crossed to nobody, and Hart comfortably gathered it in.
A minute later Toure once again got the ball in the West Ham area. He tried a back heel pass but it came off Reid and right back to Toure, who let a shot go that deflected off Reid. In the 75th minute, Sakho showed that a striker that comes back to help on defense is as valuable as The Hope Diamond. De Bruyne sent Kolarov down the left, but Sakho stayed with him. Kolarov must have felt Sakho’s breath coming from his left nostril and tumbled down from the force. Which is to say he should have seen a second yellow for diving.
Bilic made three substitutions in the second half, two of which looked odd at the time. Antonio coming on for Lanzini seemed logical. Antonio coming on for Moses did not. Jelavic coming on for Sakho seemed logical. Jelavic coming on for Lanzini did not. But both moves seemed to work out. In the 80th minute, Sakho sent Jelavic in on Hart and the England number one just beat him to the ball. The third sub was needed, when Collins came on for the injured Jenkinson. Defensive subs right before a corner usually come back to bite us. They always did under Sam. Today, just fine.
The final minutes were mostly a blur of City attacks and Reid defending. In my opinion, Reid had the game of his life. Payet broke the monotony with a terrific long-range effort that Hart pushed out for a corner. Even with only seconds remaining, it was hard to believe West Ham would hold on.
They did.
Final Score. Manchester City 1, West Ham United 2.
Like many of you, I found myself almost speechless after the game. Did we just do what I saw us do? I mean, if you put ten pounds on West Ham winning their first three road games as they have, you’d likely be able to retire on the winnings. Before the match, my best mate Jon texted me this. Verbatim. “Silva out! Aguero rusty. Kompany out! 2-1, Hammers!” He may claim he was serious, but I’ll never believe him. Yet we now have a squad of players that can compete on a very high level, a manager who is tactically flexible, and a board who trusts that manager enough to spend money on those players.
Be careful what you wish for, we were told. I’m wondering if it’s not us that need to be careful.