I don’t know why, but as I prepared to watch today’s match I thought about a college basketball game from 1985. Now my best mate Jon will think I am saying this to get under his skin, but I’m not. Georgetown vs Villanova for the NCAA title. Georgetown was simply awesome that year, seemingly invincible and palpably frightening to play against. Conventional wisdom was that the huge underdogs from Villanova would slow it down, hope to contain the monsters from Washington, and then see if they could possibly cause an upset. The coach of Villanova, Rollie Massimino, did nothing to change that thinking in the buildup. Then, from the opening tip off, ‘Nova went after them. They ran, they shot the lights out of the place, and they won. Nine times out of ten the result would have been different. Not that night. David Moyes probably thinks a basketball is an oddly colored football, and this is just another match on the EPL fixture list. But I hoped that West Ham looked at a 1-0 loss the same way as 4-0 loss and decided you only live once, might as well make the most of it. I feel he did.
In some ways, the fact that absolutely nothing happened in the first ten minutes of the match was noteworthy for West Ham. City were looking for their 20th win in a row in all competitions, they hadn’t conceded a single goal in ages, and had Aguero and De Bruyne together in the starting eleven for the first time in over a year. The talismanic Belgian tried to change that in the 13th minute with a penetrating run into the box, but there was Dawson to get in the way. No news in this case was certainly good news.
The first real chance of the match belonged to The Hammers in the 19th minute. Lingard attempted a shot from just outside the Manchester City eighteen yard box. It was deflected high and towards the City goal where Soucek met it with his head. He might have had a go at goal, but instead he tried to get the ball to Antonio in front of Ederson. The City keeper met the ball before Antonio could get to it and punched it to safety.
City won a corner in the 29th minute when Cresswell was able to deflect a Zinchenko cross behind. De Bruyne’s delivery missed everyone. But a player of that quality doesn’t miss often, and moments later he delivered a cross that could only have been improved with a laser guided system onboard for Dias. It was the first shot of match for City, which in and of itself was remarkable.
Manchester City 1
West Ham 0
West Ham should have equalized in the 39th minute when Lingard found Antonio unmarked in the Manchester City box. Maybe he was shocked to have so much time? No matter the reason, he didn’t get good contact on the ball and his shot bounced off the outside of the post. Moments after that Lingard tried a shot of his own from the right side of the penalty area but it was straight at Ederson. But the Hammers pressure continued, and they got their just rewards. It started with pressure from Rice to win the ball. Fornals rolled a pass to Coufal on the right, and he went right at the City box. He sent a low pass to Lingard in the box, who one touched it to Antonio, who tapped it in for the first goal conceded by City at home since September.
Halftime
Manchester City 1
West Ham 1
The second half started with West Ham still on the attack, with Lingard trying to pierce the City defense. He was brought down by Fernandinho on the edge of the area, but VAR had a look and determined it was a good tackle. Moments later Antonio won a corner after beating Walker, but the delivery only found men in light blue.
In between those two attacks, Randolph had to be attended to by the West Ham physio after twisting his knee on a goal kick. It begged the question in my mind of why our keepers regularly get hurt doing the most mundane things? Randolph continued, but the next time a goal kick was needed it was Dawson who took it.
The match opened up with both teams taking turns on the attack. First, Fornals worked the ball inside the Manchester City box and tried to find Lingard, but the ball was behind him. City came down the other end with De Bruyne beating Diop and driving into the West Ham box. He sent a low cross that hoped to find Aguero but instead it rolled through the box and was cleared by Cresswell.
The quality of Manchester City came back to the forefront in the 68th minute, and to rub salt in the newly created wound it was Stones who did the damage. Mahrez outmaneuvered Johnson on the right side of the West Ham eighteen yard box before calmly rolling a pass to the center half, who was unmarked and one touched it past Randolph.
Manchester City 2
West Ham 1
West Ham won a free kick in the 71st minute, and Dawson went high to reach it. He crashed into Ederson, who went down hard holding his ribs. Minutes later City won a corner after Diop got a foot in front of a Mahrez attempt, but the Hammers cleared. They won another corner moments later, and while Randolph was able to get a hand there it wasn’t the most confident of clearances. City kept possession and dared West Ham to challenge them. If the challenge was to come, it would come without Antonio as he was removed along with Johnson to make way for Benrahma and Bowen.
The subs were positive and made an impact immediately as Benrahma made a clever pass to spring Lingard, who was then fouled 30 yards from goal. Set pieces have been an important part of West Ham’s success this season, so there was a glimmer of hope. But Cresswell’s delivery didn’t find a colleague in black, and the threat was over.
In the final seconds West Ham came inches away when Lingard sent a cross into the box that Diop got his head to. His effort bounced towards the far post with Soucek in pursuit, but he couldn’t reach it. West Ham huffed and puffed as the game wound down but they couldn’t blow The Etihad down.
Final Score
Manchester City 2
West Ham 1
Make no mistake. The Champions in waiting had to work for these three points, and they know it. You could see it in their eyes. West Ham’s defense was staunch and their shape was near perfect. In many ways today’s effort showed that our place in the table is not to be laughed at as much as any of the vistories. After the match, Danny Higginbotham said on NBC that if you asked Guardiola he would likely say this was his toughest match of the year. Maybe the loss to Leicester would be ahead of today, but that’s high praise in my book. We had as many chances as they did, and perhaps better chances. There was no shame whatsoever.
Happy Days continue.