Daniel Taylor's match report
That should be yer lot from here. Cheers for reading, everyone.
That was a rather curious game. City’s control was total in the first half, but after the break they seemed to stutter rather, to the point that West Ham should probably have taken advantage of their strange nerves a little more. Still, De Bruyne was terrific in the first-half and Sterling throughout, and they have three wins from three.
One fly in the ointment is that if the FA have got a working video, Sergio Aguero will be banned for the Manchester derby next weekend after landing an unpunished elbow on Winston Reid’s mush.
Full-time: Manchester City 3-1 West Ham United
Peeeeeeeeeeeeep.
90 mins + 4: Nearly a calamity for City, as Cabellero comes out of his area to clear, but it only makes it to Fletcher. He shoots low and the offside flag goes up as Lanzini tries to flick it home, but it was going wide anyway.
90 mins + 2: Silva smacks a shot against the post, then moments later Sterling picks it up on the left, takes it round the keeper and while it looked like the angle was too tight, he manages to slip the shot home. Lovely finish, lovely performance.
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GOAL! Manchester City 3-1 West Ham United (Sterling 90 +2)
Well, boo that.
90 mins: Four minutes added time. I might be mistaken, but I think some West Ham fans greeted the news that Sterling was man of the match with boos and a chorus of ‘You let your country down’. Add them to the list.
88 mins: Sterling has a clear chance on the left, opens his body but goes for the near-post, and misses. Seconds later Silva slips it through for Nasri, but he’s off-balance as he tries the shot and skews it well wide.
87 mins: It doesn’t, as the offside flag goes up.
Meanwhile, Fernando comes on for naughty boy Aguero.
86 mins: Neat work by Fletcher and Lanzini, then Otamendi concedes a free-kick to the left of goal, in a dangerous position. Apologies if you’re a City fan, but it would be pretty funny if a goalkeeping mistake cost them here...
84 mins: City go close - Nasri finds himself clean through, he takes it round Adrian but has to scoot wide, he still manages to direct a shot at goal but Byram is there to scuff the ball off the line.
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83 mins: Such a weird second half, this. Or at least since West Ham’s goal - they haven’t actually created that much, or really threatened excessively, but City are playing like they’re up against Bayern Munich.
81 mins: City’s play just looks rather ponderous now. Sterling knocks it down the line for De Bruyne, but his attempted cross is sliced well out of play. Guardiola looks nervous on the touchline.
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80 mins: Silva goes for a glory boy, defence-splitting pass, but knocks it well beyond Nasri.
78 mins: And Reid is off, which might actually be as much a tactical change - forward Jonathan Calleri is on in his place.
76 mins: Eeesh - Aguero very lucky to get away with a nasty elbow to Reid’s throat. If the referee had seen that it’d be an obvious red, and he still might be in bother if the relevant authorities take a look.
75 mins: Well, look at this: Nolito goes off, and is replaced by the lesser-spotted Samir Nasri, with his blonde hair looking every inch the extra from the Fifth Element.
73 mins: Kouyate strides forwards and plays inside to Noble, but he tries to sweep a pass out left to Lanzini, who rather unfortunately for West Ham had simply stopped running.
70 mins: The excellent Fernandinho plays an excellent pass down the left to Aguero, who pauses, assesses his options and tries a low cross. That’s deflected goalwards by Byram, and only some smart reactions from Adrian prevents a rather embarrassing own-goal.
68 mins: Otamendi bails Clichy out after he just gets to bad pass across the City defence. They’re still looking oddly nervous now.
66 mins: De Bruyne, perhaps because of the jibe in the last entry, slips a nice ball to Aguero in the left channel, but his shot from a tough angle thuds into the side-netting.
65 mins: City trying to calm this nascent resurgence down a little now. De Bruyne has been a little quieter after the break.
62 mins: All of a sudden, West Ham look lively and City look rattled. Antonio wins a corner on the left, which is half-cleared and Noble’s cross back in sails out of play.
60 mins: A change for West Ham, too: Valencia is off, and Manuel Lanzini is on.
59 mins: And while that was happening, Stones is indeed removed - he’s replaced by Aleksandr Kolarov.
58 mins: Brilliant work from Masuaku on the left, giving Zabaleta twisted blood, he then clips a perfect cross to the back post were Antonio gets above a half-arsed jump from Clichy and heads home.
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GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 West Ham United (Antonio 58)
Well stone the crows.
56 mins: De Bruyne spins Kouyate brilliantly, shifts to Nolito who then slips a ball through the defence to Aguero, but he was just, just, just offside. Meanwhile, Stones seems to have taken a whack to the eye - not sure he’ll have to go off but a moment of concern, potentially.
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55 mins: A shot on target for West Ham! The skies open, the light comes down, truly what a day this is. Valencia gets in down the right of the box and, possibly with some better options in the middle, he tries to beat Cabellero at the near post. He does not manage it.
54 mins: Aguero tries to fashion himself a chance on the edge of the area but, in the end, his open-bodied effort slices well wide of the post.
52 mins: Nolito goes close! The ball falls to him on the left edge of the area, he shapes as if to curl into the far corner but instead goes for the near, and almost sneaks it past Adrian, but it goes wide instead.
50 mins: Masuaku must be on his final, final warning: he blocks off Sterling to concede another free-kick on the right, for which he gets that ticking off. Then Mark Noble is booked for his part in the protests.
48 mins: Fernandinho and Caballero very nearly get themselves into something of a pickle as they try to pass the ball out of defence, but the pressure is alleviated by Fletcher fouling the goalie, for which he is booked.
47 mins: GOA...oh no it’s been ruled out.
De Bruyne spanks another of those crosses over, Aguero flicks on and Nolito puts it in with his chest, but both men were offside.
46 mins: We’re away, and the lad Masuaku is at it again, hauling down Sterling and conceding a free-kick out on the right...
Teams are out for the second half, and West Ham are making a change, in both personnel and possibly shape - Tore is off, and Sam Byram comes on, which should mean a release from the gaol of right-back for Antonio.
“Is there any chance you can give this year’s Non-League Day a mention in your live text at some point this afternoon?” asks James Doe. Certainly James. Consider this that mention.
And here’s some blurb:
“With the international break coming up, Non-League Day returns for its seventh year on Saturday 3 September. With no Premier League or Championship games, football fans are being encouraged to check out their local non-league club instead. You can find your nearest game by using our match map.”
Half-time: Manchester City 2-0 West Ham United
That scoreline flatters West Ham. City’s dominance has been more or less total.
45 mins + 2: Hey, look at that - a bad pass from Silva. He looks for Nolito down the left, but the forward had made a run right...
45 mins: Two minutes of added time. A rare attack from West Ham peters out with an errant Reid pass.
43 mins: The last few minutes have been a holding pattern by City, the equivalent of a boxer placing their hand on a child’s head and keeping them at arm’s length, while watching them swing away pointlessly.
40 mins: The fluency of City’s passing has been something else. It’s difficult to tell if West Ham have been bad, or that they just haven’t been allowed to be anything else by City.
37 mins: There’s Masuaku again, holding off Sterling like he’s a rugby winger. Chances of him making the end of this one are...slim.
35 mins: What do we think, Hammers fans? Emails to Nick.Miller@theguardian.com
@NickMiller79 Is the Bilic bubble bursting? They were two pretty bad goals to give away and the selection still seems like Payet + 10 others
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) August 28, 2016
33 mins: How has that stayed out? In a similar move to the Sterling goal, Silva finds himself at the byline following a sweeping progression from right to left. He cuts it back to De Bruyne, who lines up a side-footed shot but it somehow goes wide. Via a small deflection, by the looks of things.
31 mins: Brilliant saving challenge from Otamendi (do not adjust your sets etc) to deny Antonio, attacking on the right of the area. The subsequent corner is booted clear by Clichy, which Guardiola does not react well to.
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30 mins: Chance for West Ham - with Stones still off the pitch, Tore gets the ball on the right of the area, twists and turns then crosses to the back stick, where Fletcher gets a head on it but it goes wide. If Valencia, charging in behind him, had given Fletcher a shout, he would have had an easy header at goal.
29 mins: The boy Pollard knows.
Sterling wants the ball all the time. Compared to the final few months of last season, this is an impressive turnaround.
— Rob (@RobPollard_) August 28, 2016
Early days & not everything is coming off for him but improvement is obvious. It’s good to see b/c the abuse he’s taken has been outrageous.
— Rob (@RobPollard_) August 28, 2016
28 mins: Masuaku is making himself known - he leaves a little one on Stones as they go for a 50-50, and the England defender is down receiving treatment on that knee. Think he’ll be OK though.
26 mins: And he just misses with a whipped, dipping shot that brushes the top of the net as it goes over.
25 mins: Free-kick for City on the left corner of the box as Antonio goes chest-high with his boot on Nolito. The West Ham man was looking the other way so no intent/further sanction, but De Bruyne is standing over this one with a mean look in his eye.
24 mins: West Ham dip their collective toe into the City half, but an Antonio-led attack down the right comes to nowt.
22 mins: ...Another fizzing delivery from De Bruyne, which Aguero meets but due to a mistimed jump glances wide. It was offside anyway, as it turns out, but Aguero still managed to win that header among three different defenders.
21 mins: Masuaku is given a talking to for conceding another free-kick on the right for City. What’s De Bruyne got this time...
18 mins: Simple stuff this time. City win a free kick around 45 yards from goal on the right: De Bruyne whips over a Beckhamian cross just in front of the defensive line, who all eschew the art of marking as a needless vulgarity, which allows Fernandinho to belt a header past Adrian from about ten yards out. This could get ugly.
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GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 West Ham United (Fernandinho 18)
Long old afternoon ahead for the ‘Ammers.
15 mins: Fletcher has clearly been told to harass Stones on the ball as much as possible. That could be a more useful tactical decision by Slaven Bilic than West Ham’s formation: it looks like a 5-3-2 so far, with Michail Antonio locked in his room without any suppe...erm, sorry - playing at right-back.
13 mins: “By my calculations this game is already 9 million percent* more entertaining than West Brom v Middlesbrough,” writes JR in Illinois. JR clarifies that this isn’t an exact figure, but he’s bang on.
Meanwhile, Masuaku is booked rather harshly for a mistimed challenge on De Bruyne - little contact was made, and the Belgian just jumped out of the way to avoid the tackle. Tough break.
10 mins: Fletcher finds himself with the ball in attack, but he has zero support and can only flash a left-footed shot from a tough angle, wide of the post.
9 mins: Stones gets away with one as Fletcher gets a toe to a pass inside the City area. Could be a lot of that this season.
7 mins: Wonderful stuff from City. Silva sweeps from right to left, delays his pass until just the right moment and when the time is right slips it betwixt two defenders for Nolito. He cuts it back from the byline to Sterling who, with that confidence missing from his game last season, tucks it into the corner with minimal fuss. Wonderful to see him playing with some belief and not being booed by cretins.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 West Ham United (Sterling 7)
Well, that had been coming.
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6 mins: A booking for Fernandinho, after he goes in heavily - and with two feet - on Enner Valencia. It wasn’t massively reckless but it was still a rough one, and deserved the yellow.
5 mins: Fernandinho intercepts an errant Mark Noble pass and feeds David Silva, who opens his body and tries to hoop a curling shot into the far corner, but there’s not enough curl and wide it goes.
3 mins: Nothing comes of that corner, but City carve out another chance as Sergio Aguero barrels in from the right and shoots left-footed, but he doesn’t catch it properly and it skips wide. Guardiola looks on from the touchline in his v-neck jumper, which it’s surely too warm for.
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2 mins: And nothing comes of that corner, as Otamendi heads it wide at the near stick. But wait! Here’s another one for City...
1 min: And we’re away. John Stones brings the ball out of defence for City and starts an attack that eventually leads to a corner.
West Ham are about to kick things off. They’re in their traditional claret and blue.
The players are out, the blood is pumping. Well, mainly.
Thierry Henry and Jamie Redknapp are discussing Fletcher at some length. It’s not their fault, but you wonder how many times they’ve seen him play.
Fletcher has more motivation than many to do well today, as he explained last week:
As an ex-Man United player, I’m looking forward to playing against the Blues and hopefully we can beat them like we did last year. I’m a United fan and want to go back there and beat them.”
Fight! Fight! Fight!
No real surprises in the City team, but it’s a full dayboo up top for West Ham’s Ashley Fletcher, signed from Manchester United in the summer after an impressive loan spell at Barnsley last season. The kid’s got something, but this is deep end stuff...
Team news
Manchester City
Caballero; Zabaleta, Otamendi, Stones, Clichy; Fernandinho; De Bruyne, Silva, Nolito, Sterling; Aguero. Subs: Hart, Fernando, Nasri, Kolarov, Jesus Navas, Delph, Iheanacho.
West Ham United
Adrian; Reid, Collins, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Kouyate, Noble; Antonio, Tore, Valencia; Fletcher. Subs: Randolph, Lanzini, Obiang, Byram, Calleri, Burke, Oxford.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands)
Preamble
Last season, when Leicester sliced through the fabric of footballing time, reason and sense by winning the Premier League, we regained the ability to be surprised by the modern game. This sense had been missing for a very long time, so like pouring cold water on a hot glass, it was something of a shock to the old system. Some of us are delicate flowers, you know? We don’t take this sort of thing well, and alarming events like this could do some real damage.
Perhaps recognising there’s comfort in predictability, the big clubs of the land have started this season in historically familiar form, with the top of the table taking on a comfortingly tedious shape: two clubs have three wins from three so far, and if Manchester City can beat West Ham this afternoon they will join Manchester United and Chelsea on maximum points. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Wonderful, boring, uncompetitive comfort.
Joe Hart won’t be playing today, and neither will be his replacement Claudio Bravo. But Pep Guardiola’s squad management issues don’t stop there. The chances are that Yaya Toure won’t be in the squad today, while in the future when Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan are ready to go, there will be more shuffling going on. Guardiola addressed this last week:
I cannot say every weekend why you don’t play. You don’t play because I decide to play another one, but I try to help them. In my career I help few players or enough players but [some] they criticise you a lot to the media. They go to the media because they did not play. That is the only reason. So when they speak it is [like when] Pep doesn’t play Shaqiri.
“I would like to have only 18 players. It would be a dream because everyone is happy but unfortunately there are injuries, we have to compete every three days. In Germany, they have a winter break, here not. We have all the competitions here: four; so many games and we need a bigger squad. But always we are polite with the players.
“We respect their careers but sometimes I take the decisions and the players who don’t play, they are not happy they are not playing but they are not happy for one reason, they feel: ‘The coach don’t love me.’ They don’t feel loved.
“That is the reason why. Players [don’t] understand: ‘Why the coach love this guy and don’t love me? Why?’ It is true, you deserve to play. I said many times you deserve to play. All of them, 30 players, you deserve to play. Nineteen players don’t play, so tell me how you handle that? It is impossible. Especially if you have many relationship minutes, training sessions with them to develop, to understand what you want to do.
“You have to communicate so that they believe: ‘I am going to play because I created a [good impression],’ and that is the goal.”
Meanwhile, at West Ham...
Don't go to Church. dg
— David Gold (@davidgold) August 28, 2016
Kick-off: 16.00 BST
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