Full-time: Manchester City 2-0 West Ham
As routine a win as you are ever likely to see, they are now seven points clear of Liverpool in fifth. Navas was particularly impressive. The lack of ambition from West Ham was startling. Here’s hoping Silva is ok, he took a horrible blow to the face.
Thanks for your emails and tweets and own goals. I’m off to do the Bahrain Grand Prix lap-by-lap report, which you can read here. Bye!
95 min: City simply seeing the game out now, and West Ham appear content to let them do so.
Here’s R. Glazowski on the email. “There’s a pretty spectacular own goal that was scored in the Polish second division a few years back. What makes is all the sweeter is that the scorer’s name (Madry) actually translates as ‘wise’ in Polish.”
STRIKER!
93 min: The game is becoming stretched now, and Toure is there to exploit the space, breaking beyond West Ham’s midfield. It’s two on two! Toure slips in Dzeko but the striker’s first touch is poor, and he can only muster a left-footed shot straight at Adrian. Should have done better.
91 min: Downing goes down under a challenge from Mangala. No free-kick. Allardyce is going absolutely postal at the fourth official. I’m no lipreader, but there are some choice words being uttered there. Replays show there was no contact from Mangala. Ha.
90 min: Here comes Dzeko for City’s final change, on for Aguero who receieves a standing ovation. Nine minutes added on here, for that Silva blow to the head.
88 min: Great save from Hart! Nolan latches onto a poor back pass from Navas, but Nolan can’t beat the City keeper, who speads himself expertly. The danger is not over, with Valencia picking up the rebound, but he takes one touch too many, and Kolarov gets another block in.
Man City make their second change: Lampard off, Fernandinho on.
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87 min: What a run from Valencia. The West Ham man turns Demichelis inside out, tiptoeing along the byline, cutting inside Mangala and squirting his shot just wide. That’s the closest West Ham have come. What a run!
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86 min: Aguero is wrongfully given offside. He was clean through there. City fans will be pleased to know he’s showing no signs of struggling with that knock on his ankle from earlier.
84 min: City respond in kind, again it’s Navas who cuts it back. Toure, under pressure from Nolan, skies his shot into the stand.
More own goal japery. “I remember a great one by one of my old City favourites, Willie Donachie,” recalls Phil Grey. He was playing for Scotland against Wales in 1978 (I’m feeling older and older as I write this), and he overhit a back pass to the goalkeeper (they could catch them in those days of course) and it end up being a perfect curled lob. A sort of Henry in reverse, from the left side instead of the right, and past his own keeper instead of the oppositions!”
Ben Plant, meanwhile, has plucked for Wayne Hatswell’s o.g. for Forest Green Rovers in a first round FA Cup tie. “It remains my all time favourite; I think it’s the time he has to consider his options that makes the end result all the more spectacular.”
82 min: Much better from West Ham, who are pinging the ball about nicely now. Why has it taken so long for them to wake up?
80 min: And just like that, West Ham spring into life: Creswell getting beyond Zabaleta and pulling the ball back across goal. Valencia is chopped down inside the area by Kolarov – surely that’s a penalty? – and the ball runs through to Downing who attempts a shot on his weaker right. Well blocked by Mangala. The Frenchman has played well today.
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78 min: The tempo of the match has completely fallen flat after that Silva injury. Both the players and the crowd seem subdued. You would hope West Ham give it a proper go in the last 20 minutes or so we have left, so what if they lose 3-0 or 4-0?
75 min: Silva is finally hoisted to the sidelines. He’s wearing an oxygen mask. Not looking good, hopefully it’s not too bad. Nasri on.
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73 min: Silva is still down. He appears to be conscious, but hasn’t moved in around six minutes now. Nasri is ready to come on, but I think it will be another few minutes before we restart play.
70 min: Silva is still down, with perhaps five medical people helping him into a neck brace and a stretcher. City and West Ham players hover around Silva, all with worrying expressions on their faces. I would be very surprised if Silva hasn’t broken his cheekbone.
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67 min: Oooo, that’s a nasty blow to the head of Silva! Kouyate caught him horribly with his elbow and is shown a yellow card. It was probably accidental, but replays show how forceful the hit to Silva’s cheek was. His head visibly rocked back, and the Spaniard is in all sorts of trouble on the deck. He won’t play any further part.
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66 min: West Ham make two much-needed changes. Nolan is coming on for Cole, and Jarvis is coming on for Song.
64 min: Everything is coming down City’s right, as Navas continues to torment Creswell. City are probably guilty of overdoing it once they get into the area. Just shoot lads!
61 min: It’s not quite happening for Valencia today. Zabatela has had him in his pocket all afternoon. A well-judged slide tackle from Man City’s right back sets up yet another counter-attack.
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“Chris Brass breaking his own nose while scoring one takes some beating,” suggests Mark Jelbert. “Not sure why there is some electric guitar over the replays on this but there you go.”
59 min: West Ham make their first meaningful foray into City’s half. Downing cuts inside – he doesn’t look interested today – and Jenkinson sends a hopeful cross to the back post. Three separate West Ham attackers are caught offside and City’s defence step up.
57 min: Silva is booked for throwing his arm across Reid’s face as he attempts to shield the ball. It’s a little harsh on second viewing. Boos ring out around the Etihad.
54 min: Kolarov and Navas take it in turns to cross the ball across West Ham’s box. No attacker can get a header on goal. No defender can clear. West Ham have assumed the position they did in the opening 20 minutes: entrenched deep inside their own box.
51 min: Aguero is back on his feet and the Etihad breathes a collective sigh of relief. He’s moving gingerly, but looks as though he’s going to come back on. Stand down Dzeko.
50 min: Worrying signs here for City, Aguero is still down as City play on. It looks like they’re signalling for a stretcher. Dzeko is warming up on the sidelines.
49 min: So nearly another goal for City. Aguero plays a simple one-two with Touré on the edge, with Lampard dummying the return to completely deceive Collins. Aguero’s first touch is heavy, and Jenkinson is just able to get a toe on the ball to deflect it behind. Aguero goes down in a heap. It looks like he got a couple of studs in his ankle with Jenkinson’s follow through there.
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47 min: Song feeds a ball down the right flank and Valencia stretches his legs. My word he is quick, isn’t he. But Mangala matches him stride for stride, easing the West Ham man off the ball with his strength.
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Peeeep! Here we go again. No changes made at the break.
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Philip Vernau has suggested Lee Dixon’s magnificent effort from 1991. Clip includes commentary from David Seaman, who signs off with “Nice one Dicko.”
What is your favourite ever own goal? Do email michael.butler@theguardian.com or tweet me @michaelbutler18 if you have any thoughts.
This one from Man City’s Jamie Pollock (back in 1998 against QPR) isn’t half bad. Touch of Gazza ‘96.
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Half-time: Manchester City 2-0 West Ham
City completely dominant here.
“How did West Ham find 11 men that look like their first team? The lot playing out there must be a pub team at best,” quips Mark Judd.
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45 min: One minute to be added here. The tempo has dropped considerably.
42 min: Fernando has been quietly impressive in the middle of the pitch. Aguero and Navas has been City’s outstanding performers this half, but the Brazilian enforcer has neatly mopped up loose balls and definitely got the better of Song and Kouyate.
40 min: Cole is looking knackered already. West Ham need a bit more pace up top. Everyone save the striker is behind the ball as the Hammers attempt to get through to half-time with no further damage.
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38 min: City are running riot, and once again it’s Navas who is the chief threat. Song seems intent on giving the ball away in dangerous areas, and Aguero breaks this time passing left to Silva and then Kolarov. The full-back smashes a dangerous low cross through a crowd of bodies, but the ball breaks kindly to Reid, who hacks it clear.
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I was just about to praise West Ham for committing bodies into City’s box – they had five in there with the ball at Downing’s feet – but the English winger sells Noble short, and Toure pounces, sliding in and giving the ball to Aguero. West Ham are hideously exposed and it’s four City attackers against two West Ham defenders! Aguero skips past one, and feeds Navas who dribbles into the area, commits Jenkinson and squares back to Aguero, who finishes under Adrian. Aguero is now the Premier League’s top scorer, with 20 goals this season. Game over?
LEADING #BPL GOALSCORERS: 20 - Aguero 19 - Costa 19 - Kane 17 - Austin 14 - Giroud 14 - Alexis
— Premier League (@premierleague) April 19, 2015
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GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 West Ham (Aguero 36)
A classic counter-attacking goal!
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30 min: “While that Collins effort was nice, the goal of the season title was over on 18th October, the moment Vergini scorched a rocket from near the edge of the 18 yard box past Vito Mannone,” emails J.R. in Illinois.
Incorrect. Vergini’s was top drawer, but you’re forgetting the first rule of football: any goal that is scored off the underside of the bar automatically wins goal of the season competitions.
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28 min: Chance for Cole! Demichelis loses possession and Cole is through! His lack of pace takes him a little wide, as Demichelis chases him down, but Hart is out quickly off his line and saves well with his feet. Oooo, what an opportunity. Allardyce holds his head in his hands.
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25 min: What a block from Collins! Fernando drops a lovely lofted pass to Navas, who crosses first time across the face of goal. Silva is loitering at the back post, but takes a touch, and Collins throws himself in front of the Spaniard and blocks his right-footed shot. That would surely have been a goal had Collins not got there. But why didn’t Silva head it first time?
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23 min: West Ham have finally started to play. Cole holds the ball up well, and lays off to Downing, who crosses towards Valencia. It’s just too long for the Ecuadorian. But that’s better from the London team.
20 min: At least West Ham will have to play with a bit more verve now. They’ve been shocking in this first 20 minutes. Kouyate reads Navas’s square pass, and breaks forward, but Fernando shows a good turn of pace, and makes a slide tackle behind for a corner. Collins and Reid jog up from the back. However badly West Ham have played, they are a threat from set pieces. Noble delivers, but Collins can’t get any purchase on his effort at the back post.
15 - West Ham have scored a league-high 15 headed goals this season, 11 more than Manchester City have. Philosophies.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 19, 2015
Well that was coming, but perhaps not in the way that we expected. Adrian’s goal kick is well intercepted by Navas, who delivers an early cross towards Aguero at the back post. It’s a poor cross in truth, with Collins well positioned, but the Welshman fails to clear. slicing his kick. The ball loops over Adrian, who stands there helpless, clipping the underside of the bar, and bouncing just behind the line and into the roof of the net. What a howler/golazo!
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 West Ham (Collins og 18)
Own goal of the season?!
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15 min: More defensive muck-aboutery on the edge of their own box which leads to Reid felling Lampard. It’s a very dangerous position, with Kolarov poised. He curls it over the wall and oooo, just wide of the post. It’s given as a corner, which it wasn’t, and Aguero blasts a subsequent efford over the bar.
12 min: This complacency is catching, with Song the latest to give the ball away. He’s made a poor start in general, the Cameroonian. Touré feeds Navas, who cuts back to Aguerooooo … but his shot is straight at Adrian.
10 min: Valencia has his pocket picked on the edge of West Ham’s box, and Silva lets fly from 25 yards. It’s well over.
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8 min: West Ham already playing for the draw. They played with such ambition in their win over City earlier this season. Why is it so painfully lacking now?
6 min: It’s a bit of a scrappy start. Zabaleta goes in hard (and fair) on Song and his tackle sets up a counter-attack with Toure leading the charge, but Anthony Taylor decides Zabaleta’s challenge was too wild. A poor decision, he took the ball cleanly.
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4 min: Chance for Silva! West Ham are slow in getting out to a quick corner. He squares the ball to Demichelis and ghosts into the area unmarked, before receiving a lofted pass back from the Argentinian. He’s in on goal, but he’s slow to take the ball down on his chest, and Creswell is able to clear. West Ham carved open. Ominous.
3 min: West Ham have already dropped very deep, Touré and Silva popping it about the middle of the pitch without any pressure. Zabaleta gets round Navas and drives to the byline, but it’s well blocked by Reid. Corner.
2 min: There are A LOT of empty seats at the Etihad. It’s a strange atmosphere, eerily quiet.
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Peeeep peeeep! And we’re off!
The teams are out, West Ham in their changed purply strip. I have no idea why claret wouldn’t have sufficed. Yaya Touré captains City today with Kompany out injured. Touré looks quite up for it, actually. Let’s do this!
29y307d - The average age of Man City's starting XI today is the 2nd oldest they've named in the PL this season (29y345d vs Palace A). Hoary
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 19, 2015
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It’s Joseph Hart’s 28th birthday. Don’t mention the cake.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Will Joe Hart make another super save on the day he turns 28? Look back on some of his #BPL best... https://t.co/82vfFTe8oV
— Premier League (@premierleague) April 19, 2015
Big Sam Allardyce has been talking to the cameras, and weirdly, the West Ham manager is grinning from ear to ear, like he knows something we don’t.
Performances have been there, but our deficiencies to win a game, particularly in the last few minutes, has cost us dear.
I felt that Carlton deserves to play down the middle. If he’s on good form, then he’ll cause problems for City’s defence.
IF.
On this day in 1958, one of City's greatest-ever players Billy Meredith passes away. #mcfc pic.twitter.com/pCK7fmgCOW
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) April 19, 2015
The Guardian did a nice little piece on Billy Meredith back in 2007, which you can read here.
The pre-eminent player of his generation, Billy Meredith was described as the ‘finest right-winger living, an awkward customer to tackle, as slippery as an eel, with shooting powers extraordinary’. In a career spanning 31 years, he played 1,568 games and scored 470 goals. In 1904, he became the first Welshman to captain an FA Cup-winning side when his goal for Manchester City brought the Cup to Manchester for the first time.
Nicknamed ‘Old Skin’ because of his long, wiry frame, Meredith would chew on a toothpick as he danced and dribbled down the wing. An expert penalty taker, in the days when goalkeepers were not prohibited from charging forward from their lines, he would lob the ball over them and into the net.
Meredith chaired the first meeting of the Association Players and Trainers Union at the Imperial Hotel in Manchester. The reason for the gathering was the players’ opposition to the imposition of a maximum wage, which had been set at £4 a week in 1901. This was twice the average pay of a works foreman and four times that of a farm labourer. Now, with no limit, players could earn nearly a thousand times the wages of a farm labourer.
‘What is more reasonable than our pleas that the footballer, with his uncertain career, should have the best money he can earn?’ asked Meredith. ‘If I can earn £7 a week, should I be debarred from receiving it?’
Today’s teams … the headline news: stalwarts of the English game, Frank Lampard and Carlton Cole will grace us with their presence today.
Man City: Hart, Zabaleta, Mangala, Demichelis, Kolarov, Lampard, Fernando, Jesus Navas, Toure, Silva, Aguero. Subs: Sagna, Nasri, Dzeko, Caballero, Fernandinho, Boyata, Pozo.
West Ham: Adrian, Jenkinson, Collins, Reid, Cresswell, Kouyate, Song, Noble, Downing, Cole, Valencia. Subs: Nolan, Jarvis, Nene, O’Brien, Amalfitano, Jaaskelainen, Burke.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire)
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Preamble
The last time Manchester City lost three times in a row, way back in 2010, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnson and Emmanuel Adabayor were leading the line, Wayne Bridge played at left back, and Patrick Vieira was still hobbling around the middle of the pitch. Their wasn’t much to be taken from the 3-1 defeat to Lech Poznan, except perhaps a celebration, but following a 3-0 home defeat by Arsenal and a shock 2-1 loss to Mick McCarthy’s Wolves, Roberto Mancini was increasingly coming under pressure in his first full season in charge. City stuck with the Italian, and they were rewarded with the FA Cup at the end of the 2010-11 season, their first trophy for 35 years.
Manuel Pellegrini will almost certainly not be afforded the same patience should his side lose for the third straight time today. City have lost six of their last eight matches in all competitions and have slipped from title contenders to being in danger of not even qualifying for the Champions League.
It will be a welcome relief for City then, that the team that they face today, West Ham, are also in a rotten run of form: just one win from their last 11. A Kompany-less City defence will welcome the news that West Ham travel to Manchester without Diafra Sakho, who has a thigh strain, although Enner Valencia has recovered from the gash caused by stepping on a broken teacup to take his place today.
So, two teams woefully out of form. Let’s hope the defending contines to be awful. At least then we’ll get a few goals.
Kick off: 1.30pm BST
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