English Premier League – Full time review: West Ham United versus Manchester City
Manchester City began the match as the brighter of the two teams hence they were the ones who created the first chance of the match and quite surprisingly it came through Pablo Zabaleta, City’s left back surged forward and then played the ball to Jo. Jo
squared the ball to Mario Balotelli, who almost sealed the move off with a good finish but his attempt went wide of the mark and the score line remained at 0-0. In the 5thminute of the encounter, Scott Parker was called up by the referee for a cynical
challenge on Yaya Toure, the crowd was anticipating a booking for the West Ham United midfielder but the referee practiced common sense and let the Englishman off with a warning.
In the 6th minute of the match, Nigel De Jong surged forward and played a one-two with Toure. The Dutch midfielder crossed the ball into the City penalty area but James Tomkins was at hand to head the ball away for a corner. The ensuing set piece
was a very bad one for City who wasted it as West Ham United regained possession. They broke forward but couldn’t capitalize on the chance that fell their way as the score line remained stagnant.
However, Manchester City soon took the lead as Yaya Toure got on the end of a great Gareth Barry cut back. The ex-Barcelona midfielder took it with his left foot as the ball blitzed past the English goalkeeper, Robert Green as the score line reached 0-1
to the away side. In the 34th minute of the match, Mario Balotelli rose above Mark Noble to head the ball into the West Ham United goal but the ball was cleared off the line by Julien Faubert as West Ham survived the City attack.
Thus the first half came to an end with City in the lead as the score line lay at rest at 0-1 to the away side. The second half started with a rash tackle from Tal Ben Haim. The Israeli defender brought down David Silva with a late challenge; the referee
spotted the offense and rightly booked the defender for his troubles. It was the first yellow card of the night for West Ham United.
In the 50th minute of the match, Obinna surged down the left hand side of attack for the home side and cracked in a wonderful ball into the City penalty area. However, Joe Hart was on hand to gather the ball before Piquionne made contact with
it. In the 52nd minute, it was Yaya Toure down the other end of the field who tried his luck on the West Ham Unite goal. Even though the midfielder’s shot was on target, Robert Green dealt with it competently.
In the 65th minute of the match, Kieran Dyer came on for West Ham United in place of Junior Stanislaus. The midfielder almost made an instant impact as he was played in by Scott Parker. Regardless, Kolo Toure’ intercepted the pass and then regained
possession for the away side. The match was played at a better pace in the second half but still West Ham found it hard to get in behind the City defence. On the other hand, City were comfortable with their one goal lead but their lack of creativity meant
that they were limited to shots from outside the West Ham United penalty area.
In the 72nd minute, Yaya Toure showed immense skill as he went past James Tomkins with ease. The midfielder surged into the West Ham penalty area and then scored with a brilliant finish which cannoned back off the goalkeeper and ended up in the
back of the West Ham United net. In the 80th minute of the match, City got their third goal as David Villa played in Adam Johnson who scored with a neat finish after going past Robert Green. However, just before the full time whistle Tomkins got
the only goal of the match for West Ham as he headed home a corner kick which was taken by Mark Noble. Thus the match came to an end as Manchester City ended up as deserved winners by three goals to one
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