EPL Full Time Report: West Ham United vs. Manchester City – City cruise past the Hammers (Part 1)
Manchester City were looking to take on West Ham United, with hopes that a win would help the team escalate to the second spot in the Premier League Table. On the other hand West Ham United were sitting on the bottom of the table and knew by now, that there
was very little or no hope for them.
City were going into the game without the team's top goal scorer, Carlos Tevez, who was forced to sit the game out due to suspension and joining him on the suspended players list was Aleksandar Koralov. However City did have Kolo Toure returning to the side,
after the centre back managed to finally overcome his calf problem.
The line ups for the game were as follows: Man City: Hart, Boateng, Toure, Kompany, Zabaleta, De Jong, Barry, Jo, Toure Yaya, Silva, Balotelli. Subs: Given, Richards, Milner, Adam Johnson, Santa Cruz, Lescott, Vieira
West Ham: Green, Faubert, Tomkins, Upson, Ben-Haim, Barrera, Spector, Parker, Stanislas, Piquionne, Obinna. Subs: Stech, Reid, Dyer, Cole, Boa Morte, Kovac, Hines
After the players arrived on the pitch, the referee blew the whistle to signal the start of the highly anticipated match and from the very first minute City appeared to be on top of things.
The first chance of the game fell to Mario Balotell, David Silva combined with Yaya Toure in the midfield before setting up the striker however the Italians lazy effort resulted in the ball going well wide from just six yards out.
Nonetheless City didn't seem to let the early miss ruin the team's attitude towards the game as they continued to attack a rather weak and faltering West Ham.
After some early pressure, City finally did manage to score the opening goal of the night at the thirtieth minute mark. Gareth Barry got down the left wing, before cutting a brilliant ball back into space. Yaya Toure happened to be the player running into
that space and managed to get onto the loose ball and smack it into the top far corner, well beyond the reach of Green and City had the lead.
City however didn't let the early goal get to their head, as they continued to apply pressure onto the weak West Ham and almost had another goal on the thirty fourth minute. However Balotelli couldn't keep his header on target and another opportunity went
begging for the team.
That was the last real chance of the first half, as soon after the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the half and both the teams retreated to the locker rooms.
Continued in Part 2
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