My wife and I have virtually identical cars. 2014 Subaru Outbacks. Mine is green, hers red. About ten days ago my rear backup camera died. Now if your car has one, you know what a game changer that goodie can be. So having it die kind of sucks. Actually, it really sucks. So I made an appointment to have it replaced this coming Friday. The day after mine quit, guess what happened to hers? You couldn’t get odds on that from any bookmaker on earth. Lloyds Of London wouldn’t touch it. So the best appointment for her car was today at 11am. But my son had a friend coming over at Noon, and the wife wanted to be the chaperone for that event. So I was appointed the driver of her car to the shop.
I arrived there at 9:45am and explained why I was over an hour early. The looks on their faces were more dumbfounded than anything. Can’t blame them. I found a spot in the waiting area, set up my phone for viewing and my IPad for writing, and away we went.
The first important moment of the match, amazingly, was an opportunity for West Ham. Antonio found himself launched into the Manchester City area all alone in the sixth minute. But with Arnautovic streaking into the middle of the box, having beaten his man, Antonio showed his lack of nous by not feeding his main man and instead won a corner that led to nothing.
Despite the huge amounts of money, at least by our standards, spent in the summer there are still so many areas we lack depth and quality. The midfield is one of them. When Kyle Walker started a run in the 11th minute, he had enough space to start a farm. He fed Sterling on the right, who sent a low cross that deflected off of Diop right into the path of Silva. That ended the way we would expect it to. Granted, the deflection was vital. But the space for Walker was equally vital.
West Ham 0
Manchester City 1
Aguero was in perfect position to double the visitors lead in the 16th minute when Sterling again got the ball on the right. He saw Aguero alone near the top of the West Ham eighteen yard box, but Aguero skied his effort over the bar. The let off was temporary, however. In the 19th minute, Sane beat Zabaleta on the left, Sterling beat Masuaku on the right, and the lead was doubled.
West Ham 0
Manchester City 2
It’s not that The Hammers were capitulating. Just the opposite. We went for it. We pressed, and worked, and created chances. Within minutes of Sterling’s goal, the home side created two chances. First, Antonio quite literally worked Laporte off the ball inside the City box and tapped the ball towards Arnautovic. The West Ham talisman got a low shot off that Ederson stopped easily. Moments later, the roles reversed and Arnie fed Antonio in the box but the maligned West Ham winger shot right at the City keeper. Regardless of the outcome, it was a good response from West Ham.
David Moyes made a few very good decisions in his brief time at the club. Arnautovic as a front man was the most obvious. But if memory serves me, wasn’t it Moysie who had Masuaku on the wing? And why did he do that? Simple.
Masuaku. Cannot. Defend.
I’m not saying the score would have been different had Cresswell been at left back. But Masuaku switching off is so predictable I don’t know why Pellegrini thought the slight creativity gained was worth the almost complete lack of defensive abilities. So after about six thousand passes, Sane beat Masuaku, got the ball in front of Fabianski, and scored.
West Ham 0
Manchester City 3
In the dying seconds of the half, West Ham created another decent chance when Diangana rolled a well timed ball to Zabaleta in the box. He had a decent look at goal, but he’s a right back. Not a striker. So every fiber in his body yelled “PASS” when “SHOOT” might have been better. So another chance fell by the wayside.
Halftime
West Ham 0
Manchester City 3
The second half began with Cresswell in at left back for Masuaku. Let’s hope we never see the well intentioned Masuaku at that position again.
Two minutes into the second forty five, another deflected cross landed on the feet of a Manchester City player in the form of Sterling. Somehow Fabianski got down in front of him and stopped the chance. Small victories, right?
Composure. It’s so vital. And it’s something, along with the aforementioned nous, that Antonio does not have. Dare I say he’s not a footballer, per se? He’s more physical specimen. And despite what some may think, that isn’t an out and out criticism. In the 57th minute, Obiang started an attack that ended with a beautifully weighted ball for Antonio down the right. He really had to score. Instead he tried to beat Ederson to the near post…..and didn’t.
The crowd started singing. It was not the atmosphere, at least on TV, of a heavy defeat. Anderson was playing very well. Hernandez created a spark. Rice made the contract impasse even more frustrating and absurd than it already is. The movement was positive. On another day, against lesser opposition…..
I missed part of the second half discussing things like tire pressure sensors and the rear view camera. Thankfully the bill wasn’t as awful as I had feared. When I got back the score was the same. Which allowed me to ponder the same question I’m guessing many were pondering at an equal rate. Had Cresswell started, well, I just don’t know.
Back to reality.
Despite having as good an overall performance in Claret & Blue as we have seen, Anderson was replaced in the 68th minute by Perez. If ever there was a time for Man Bun, this was it. And Perez did himself no favors at all in his rather useless time on the pitch, so I’m not sure when we will see him again.
In the 74th minute, yet another decent bit of work by Antonio and Arnautovic saw the latter with an open header in the box. He probably should have at least hit the target. Maybe he should have scored. He put his effort over the bar. Two minutes later he won a corner, and Balbuena came inches from getting a goal off of the Cresswell delivery.
The most worrisome moment came in the final minute of the ninety when Arnautovic removed himself from the match after an awkward fall in the box minutes earlier. Worse than Sane scoring another in the final seconds.
Final Score
West Ham 0
Manchester City 4
We lost. But we expected it, right? We had decent chances. And if we had capitalized on some of them, the result might have been a wee bit different. Tony Gale said on television that we had better chances than any other side he had seen them play this year. Which is frightening when you think about it. But considering the opposition, we really and truly made a good accounting of ourselves. West Ham supporters know good football, regardless of the numbers on the board. We made them work. More than any other loss in recent memory I switched this one off thinking we might be on the right track. Of course an absurdly bad performance against Newcastle next week is possible, but for the time being I’m going to allow myself to feel OK.