Manchester City completed a miserable week by losing to West Ham United in a tightly contested battle at Upton Park.
Earlier this week, the Premier League champions conceded a two-goal lead against CSKA Moscow, which now means that their Champions League hopes are currently in turmoil. They were expected to easily defeat a West Ham United side that, despite their impressive start to the season, cost a fraction of Manuel Pellegrini’s illustrious team.
City , who were already five points behind the league leaders, Chelsea, after just eight games, could have put more pressure on the teams above them with a victory. Especially since Jose Mourinho’s men have a tricky encounter against Manchester United at Old Trafford to contend with on Sunday.
However, City never really clicked into gear during the contest, and when West Ham took the lead after 21 minutes thanks to Morgan Amalfitano, who poked home a cross from Enner Valencia from just three yards out, it wasn’t a surprise.
Even this really failed to provoke a response from City , who struggled to find a genuine rhythm to their play. However, with players like Sergio Aguero and Yaya Youre in their midst, the Manchester side were always likely to create chances, and the aforementioned players both came close to equalizing, only to see their efforts return off the bar.
As the game etched towards full time, City’s attacking play became more and more ferocious and frantic. But this approach left plenty of holes at the back, and West Ham were able to take advantage to extend their lead with just 15 minutes left.
Aaron Creswell managed to get a cross in that Diafra Sakho beat Gael Clichy to, and he headed home with aplomb past a flailing Joe Hart. This was the sixth league goal that Sakho has scored in six games for the Hammers, and as you can imagine their fans reacted jubilantly to the strike.
This finally saw City click into gear though, and the always consistently majestic David Silva managed to curl home a sublime effort that got the Citizens back into the game just two minutes after Sakho scored. City then began to incessantly pepper West Ham’s goal with attacks, but the closest they came was courtesy of a Stevan Jovetic strike that produced a fine save from Adriano.
West Ham were able to hold out for a famous victory that means they are now fourth in the table, while Manchester City will have to regroup before they take on their bitter rivals, Manchester United, next weekend.
[Image via Aldia]
