Right, that’s it from me. Superb stuff from City in general and from Silva in particular. Be sure to stick around on site for the reports and reaction from the Etihad, but from me cheerio!
Peep! PEEP!! PEEEEEEEP!!! Mike Dean puts Albion out of their misery. That was an emphatic performance from City. It says here in my Big Book Of Football Cliches that they have Laid Down A Marker.
90+2 min: Kolarov draws another fine save from Myhill with a fizzing free-kick from distance.
Updated
V impressive #mcfc display...
— jamie jackson (@JamieJackson___) August 10, 2015
90 min: Three minutes of added time for Albion to endure.
89 min: Superb save from Myhill as Aguero crashes a loose ball at goal from close range.
88 min: Nasri’s shot – after brilliant work from Aguero – deflects off a defender and Myhill is a spectator again as the ball loops towards goal. Just wide on this occasion.
Updated
87 min: Anichebe works a bit of space 25 yards out and spanks a shot at goal. It’s comfortable for Hart.
85 min: This game is, understandably, petering out to some extent now.
84 min: Chris Brunt shanks wide after strong work from Anichebe in the middle.
82 min: Yacob is a little lucky to avoid a second booking after chopping down Silva and then Kolarov.
81 min: Passpasspass from City. Passpasspasspasspass.
79 min: Another change for both sides: Berahino comes off and McManaman on for Albion. Demichelis replaces Touré for the visitors.
77 min: Terrific play from Berahino and Brunt down the left, with the former backheeling to put the latter in behind. His cross is met by Morrison but the midfielder’s header is straight at Hart.
76 min: A lovely lay-off from Berahino should be gathered by Anichebe but he’s crowded out by defenders.
74 min: A couple of changes: Rickie Lambert, who has done enough to suggest he’ll be a useful addition for Albion, is replaced by Anichebe. And Sterling goes off to be replaced by Samir Nasri.
73 min: West Brom win another couple of corners but they come to nothing.
Updated
72 min: … Brunt’s loft into the box is nodded out for a corner by Kolarov … and the corner is punched away by Hart.
71 min: Kompany hacks down Berahino from behind in really quite awkward fashion. No yellow card for some reason. And Berahino is back up soon enough. Quite a nice position for Albion is this …
69 min: “In his Herts hideaway, Arsène Wenger is watching this with increasing satisfaction,” writes Charles Antaki. “Arsenal have been lifted from the bottom of the table.”
68 min: … Dawson rises highest but his header flicks off Kolarov and out for another corner, which Hart punches clear.
67 min: Sagna does well to slide the ball out for a corner under pressure from Berahino. Corner to Albion …
65 min: Navas finds Aguero on the edge of the box but his shot is straight at a defender.
64 min: Hart makes a fine save as Fletcher curls a ball into the six-yard box and Lambert slides in to poke at goal. But the flag was up anyway so … as you were.
63 min: Kolarov wangs a free-kick from distance well over the bar. And, good news for plenty of Fantasy Football players I imagine, Sergio Agüero comes on to replace Bony.
61 min: Yacob joins three team-mates in the book for chopping down Silva.
3-0, game over surely. #mcfc look best of top teams thus far...
— jamie jackson (@JamieJackson___) August 10, 2015
GOAL! West Bom 0-3 Man City (Kompany 59)
Kompany attacks Silva’s inswinging corner at the near post and glances the ball with a combination of head and shoulder. It’s enough to send the ball arcing over Myhill and into the far top corner.
Updated
59 min: Silva again conjures a cross out of nothing – with the ball seemingly bobbling out of control and defenders swarming. Cleared. Corner …
58 min: Chester loses the ball to Sterling on halfway and has to trip him to avoid a hugely dangerous break. He joins Fletcher and Gardner in the book.
57 min: Gardner goes into the book for a lunge on Navas as City look to break.
55 min: Somehow Silva manages to find a cross from the byline despite the ball bobbling around and pressure from two defenders. No one is there to meet it but still. He’s having a brilliant start to the season.
54 min: Yacob pinches Sterling’s pocket on the edge of the box after City threaten once more.
52 min: Brunt swirls in a corner from the right but a City head is there to meet the ball.
51 min: Berahino gets in behind the City backline again but can only scuff his shot at goal. Albion have been much improved since the break. Tony Pulis’s anger is probably still ringing in their ears.
Updated
50 min: Craig Dawson hammers into Silva, sending the Spaniard flying. Fair challenge, says Mike Dean.
48 min: Fernandinho hands West Brom a cheap free-kick 30 yards out. Lambert steps up … and fizzes the ball on to the roof of the net. Close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, Gorilla.
47 min: … and Silva finds Sterling on the left. He cuts inside but his poke at goal from a tight angle is blocked by Myhill.
46 min: Morrison looks to slip the ball in to Lambert who has his arms up in complaint before the ball reaches him. Mike Dean isn’t interested and City break …
Peep! Off we go again. Yacob has replaced the aforementioned McClean.
A bit of a talking point: during that first-half Sky commentator Alan Parry referred to James McClean as “the Northern Irishman from Londonderry”, which seems a strange thing to say by accident. McClean has been booed by supporters during the first half, presumably because of this:
and this:
Peep! PEEP!! Half-time. City utterly imperious and David Silva untouchable.
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45 min: A minimum of one minute will be added on here.
43 min: David Silva’s vision and poise is just incredible. While the match hustles and bustles around him, he calmly turns on the edge of the box and fires a perfect pass across to the onrushing Kolarov. The full-back’s effort is deflected over the bar.
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42 min: GOA … nope, Berahino is just offside on the edge of the box. A bit of hope for West Brom, though.
41 min: What a chance! City should be 3-0 up but Raheem Sterling has missed a bit of a sitter. A ball through the middle finds Sterling running in behind Chester but his low shot is saved by Myhill. In truth, though, the goalkeeper should not have been given a chance.
Updated
39 min: Fletcher trips Silva and gets his name jotted down in Mike Dean’s Big Book of Very Bad Men.
37 min: The Hawthorns, which can be a bit of a cauldron when the mood takes the Baggies fans, is eerily silent. And it’s no surprise really – they’ve been given nothing to shout about.
36 min: Lescott hoiks the ball into the box far too aimlessly and Lambert concedes a free-kick in an attempt to turn it into something useful.
35 min: … Gardner lofts it in but it’s lacking both in venom and accuracy. City clear with the minimum of fuss.
34 min: Mangala climbs all over Lambert, who wins a free-kick for his team. It’s in a useful position: central, 45 yards or so out …
32 min: City are a whisker away from 3-0. Kolarov streaks into space down the left – he has acres in behind the Albion defence. He picks out Bony, whose effort takes a slight deflection and whistles narrowly wide.
30 min: Morrison plops a cross rather apologetically into the side netting as Albion foray forward once more. Pulis has changed things – Berahino has shifted wide and Fletcher has dropped a little deeper in midfield.
29 min: This 4-4-2 hasn’t worked at all for West Brom. But surely you can’t take a striker off at 2-0 down?
28 min: … and bloots the ball over the bar.
Updated
27 min: Fernandinho brings Gardner down perhaps 35 yards from the City goal. Lambert eyes up a shot …
26 min: That whole move was majestic from City. Silva was the pivot and Touré the driving force from deep. There was a good 10-15 passes before the shot.
GOAL! West Brom 0-2 Man City (Touré 24)
Definitely Touré’s goal this time. And this is a stone-cold stunner. Silva twinkles from deep before Touré puts his foot on the gas. He feeds Bony, who lays the ball back off to the Ivorian. His sidefoot smash rips past Myhill. This might just be over already.
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22 min: Morrison gives the ball away too cheaply in midfield, but Navas repays the favour out on the City right.
21 min: Hart comes out to claim as West Brom sling a ball into the box from wide on the right.
20 min: Sterling prompts an almighty scramble with a cut-back into the box. It was a lovely little move down the left and a decent pass into the danger area, but Bony couldn’t quite force the ball home.
Updated
19 min: Kolarov looks to find Sterling in the left channel but his pass is a little heavy.
17 min: Brunt’s free-kick on halfway finds Lambert’s bonce, but his flick is picked off by City.
16 min: “if it took a nick off Silva then it’s his goal surely?” writes Ray Jones via Twitter. “I say this as someone who bet on him to score first.” I reckon it’s either his goal or an own goal – I’m not sure the initial effort from Touré was on target.
15 min: Lambert rolls a neat ball into Berahino, who slips the ball out to McClean (“BOOOOO!!!” say the Man City fans). The cross is blocked but this is now comfortably Albion’s best spell of the game. Although “spell” is probably too strong a word.
13 min: That goal has disrupted the pattern of play not one jot. City are still swarming all over the home side.
11 min: It was a slightly strange goal that. It looked as though Myhill could just throw his cap on the ball … but the final deflection off Dawson might have made it look a little worse for the keeper than it actually was.
GOAL! West Brom 0-1 Man City (Touré 9)
And it has taken City less than nine minutes to break down their opponents. Navas pulls back to Touré on the edge of the box, whose scuffed shot is probably going wide. It takes the slightest deflection off Silva and a slightly heavier one off a West Brom defender, taking the pace off the ball. But Myhill can only stand and watch as the ball trickles over the line.
Updated
9 min: It’s been more or less one-way traffic thus far. All 11 West Brom players are currently camped in their own half.
8 min: Neat triangles from City but Sagna’s eventual cross into the box is well over Bony’s head.
6 min: Navas slides a low cross into the box – Bony just fails to get on the end of it.
5 min: Sterling picks the ball up (“BOOOOOO!!” say the West Brom fans) and Gardner rather cynically trips him. “Your first emailer gave me the fear as I have no idea who Jamie xx is,” writes Ian Copestake. “But on the subject of people I do know the existence of, Sterling is expected to be booed by opposing fans for some reason but I only recently experienced someone at a game shouting the words ‘boo’. It struck me as a very odd thing to do. Unsatisfactory somehow, as if the word only manages to convey a manufactured sense of outrage due to its sound, which is not onomatopoeic as it signifies nothing beyond itself.”
4 min: Silva cuts inside from the left and looks to unleash a shot at goal but it’s blocked at source. The ball breaks to Sterling, who gets roundly booed by the home fans.
3 min: Navas pings a cross against the shins of an Albion defender from the right corner of the area. City have started on the front foot here.
2 min: A sign of things to come perhaps: Brunt pings a long diagonal ball in the direction of Lambert, who looks to nod down to Berahino. He can’t find his strike partner on this occasion.
1 min: City kick off and dink the ball about at the back before Sagna finds Bony. He looks to poke through to Navas but the Albion defence tidy up.
Peep! Off we go then. Tony Pulis said just before kick-off that playing with Lambert and Berahino is “a risk” for his side. They’re up front in a 4-4-2.
Updated
The players are in the tunnel … kick-off just five minutes away.
A pre-match email: “I have a feeling both teams could underwhelm and frustrate this season, but will pick City to edge it 2-1,” writes Daniel Schulwolf. “While we’re on the subject of frustration, I saw Jamie xx in concert last night in Boston. It was absolutely terrific, but there was this one fantastic song that he played that I can’t seem to find anywhere on the world wide web. It consisted of a garage beat and a vocalist spelling out the word G.A.R.A.G.E repeatedly, with something of a one-liner after each letter. Any help tracking down this gem would be greatly appreciated.”
Hmm. Not sure on that one. Will F.E.A.R do you?
Fair enough, really …
Nine year old on the pitch at the Hawthorns asked where he thinks West Brom will finish this season. "Fifteenth."
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) August 10, 2015
Confirmed teams
West Brom: Myhill, Chester, Dawson, Lescott, Brunt, Morrison, Gardner, Fletcher, McClean, Lambert, Berahino. Subs: Olsson, Yacob, Ideye, Anichebe, McManaman, Sessegnon, Rose.
Man City: Hart; Sagna, Kompany, Mangala, Kolarov; Toure, Fernandinho; Jesus Navas, Silva, Sterling, Bony. Subs: Zabaleta, Nasri, Aguero, Caballero, Demichelis, Denayer, Iheanacho.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
So Rickie Lambert starts up front for West Brom, perhaps with Berahino alongside him but more likely with the youngster out wide. City are pretty much as-predicted, although, Sagna starts at right-back rather than Zabaleta.
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Preamble
Both clubs have had already had rather busy days. City have made an improved £47m bid for Wolfsburg’s Kevin De Bruyne. And West Brom have forked out £12m for Venezuela striker Salomón Rondón. It’s a club record fee, eclipsing the money Albion paid for Brown Ideye last year. Ideye improved as the season wore on but is expected to be on the bench this evening. Rondón isn’t elligible to play until West Brom face Watford on Saturday.
Here are the possible lineups for the game:
City’s 2014-15 season was scuppered by two patches of miserable form – one just after Christmas when they won one in six and another in March and early April when they lost four in another half dozen. They finished last season in decent form, though, winning six on the bounce (at an aggregate score of 18-4). Raheem Sterling and, somewhat less excitingly, Fabian Delph have been the main additions to the squad anbd it’s probably fair to say that City fans watching the events of the first weekend of the season will have begun this week with their optimism bolstered.
Albion had a dismal 2014 but things picked up in the new year and they ended up safely ensconced in midtable. The future of Saido Berahino might have been one of the tedious transfer odysseys of the summer but it never really materialised, not least, you suspect, because of the injury that ruled him out of the European U21s Championships. A starring role there may have fanned the flames of speculation but he’s expected to lead the line for the home side tonight.
While we’re awaiting the team news why not give your ears a treat and listen to this week’s edition of Football Weekly:
