City 2 West Ham United 0
April 19th 45,041
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Three valuable points for City in the battle to keep in the top four and participation in the Champions League next season. City took the lead in a bizarre manner. A hopeful cross by Navas was completely miss-hit by Collins who was about 15 yards out. The ball flew over the keepers head and into the goal much to the delight of Navas and the City fans. Aguero scored the second following a break-away. He galloped up field passed to Navas who returned the favor and Aguero made no mistake to give him his 101st goal of his City career and his 20th league goal of the season. City are now 7 points clear of Liverpool in 5th place.
The greatly improved display was marred by the injury to David Silva who was carried off the field with a suspected broken cheek bone after a clash with Kouate. He was given oxygen during lengthy on field treatment. Apparently he was able to leave hospital later so let's hope the injury was not as bad as first feared. Mangala standing in for the injured Kompany had a decent game and West Ham rarely troubled Joe Hart. Yaya Toure too had an improved match and with Fernando on form City pretty well bossed the middle of the park playing some attractive football.
After the Silva injury City went off the boil a bit and though several good opportunities were missed to add to the score City were in control. Towards the end Navas almost gifted West Ham a goal when his poor back pass to Hart went stray.
not the greatest of turnouts by visiting West Ham fans
With Kompany, Milner, Clichy and Bony injured City made several changes and Fernando was preferred to fernandinho. Only one up front today - Aguero
Quite a few gaps in the crowd - surely they were all not running the marathon!
more additions to the new look Etihad
an early chance for Silva but his effort was blocked
West Ham clear a City corner
Adrian saves a shot from Aguero
A free kick taken by Kolarov for a foul on Lampard goes just wide
following a corner Aguero gets a chance but shoots well over the bar
On 17 minutes we had the amazing own goal by Collins from the cross by Navas
It was a great gift and Navas looked quite pleased!
Mangala heads clear from Carlton Cole
On 26 minutes Silva has a shot blocked
Zabaleta has to have treatment off the field for an injury
Song clears from Silva.......
....who ends up doing a hand stand!
On 35 minutes City start a counter attack and Aguero passes to Navas.....
...who returns the ball to Aguero who shoots..........
....and its goal number 101 for Aguero
so City take a comfortable two goal lead and the players and fans can celebrate
City applied more pressure but could not score so half time came with City ahead two nil
three minutes after the break Aguero has a chance but the keeper saves
in his follow through it looks like Aguero is injured. Lets not panic too quickly though!
soon he's up on his feet and back in the game. I wonder why Alex Song is wearing boots of a
different colour!!!! Is it a new Sam tactic!!
City continue to put pressure on the West Ham goal
a Navas cross give City a chance .....
Silva gets a yellow card for a foul- unusual
Yaya Toure tries to break through and falls to the ground expecting the whistle to go Sorry not this time!
On 68 minutes Silva is down injured and looks to be unconscious and a stretcher is called for
He is treated on the field for about 8 minutes and it looks like he has been given oxygen
He is applauded off the pitch as Nasri waits to come on and a worried looking City manager gets an update from one of his staff
Downing gets a chance but his shot is blocked by Mangala
again Yaya Toure has an effort blocked a minutes later
With City looking a bit off color West Ham put on some pressure
on 87 minutes Valencia passes across the box and Nolan only just misses the ball
A very poor back pass by Navas gives Nolan a chance but Hart saves well and then has to save from Valencia
During the 9 minutes of added time Sam Allardyce has a slight disagreement with the 4th official
team
Hart 7: Zabaleta 7.5, Mangala 7.5, Demichelis 7, Kolarov 7: Toure 7.5, Fernando 7.5, Lampard 6.5 (Fernandinho) , Navas 7.5,
Silva 7 (Nasri 7) Aguero 7.5 ( Dzeko)
