Manchester City cruised to a routine 3-1 win at home to West Bromwich Albion as The Blues closed the gap on Chelsea and Liverpool in second and first respectively. The game made history with it being the first time ever three different Argentines scored in a Premier League game. However the victory was marred for the title challengers, when star midfielder David Silva was carried off on a stretcher in the second half.
The game started in very similar fashion to last week’s game against Sunderland, with Manchester City scoring extremely early in the game, after just three minutes when Pablo Zabaleta powered home a header. City controlled the early exchanges, and when Ben Foster was unable to keep ahold of Sergio Agüero’s shot inside the box, Zabaleta was ready to pounce on the rebound.
Feelings of déjà vu may have penetrated the stands after that early goal, but Sergio Agüero doubling the lead seven minutes later certainly put most worries to bed. This only came after Matej Vydra had a goal disallowed for offside in the sixth minute, which would have been a West Brom equaliser. Up the other end, returning Argentine Agüero easily rifled home from 22 yards past the England international Foster.
Minutes later though, the deficit was halved. The warning signs had been there for Manchester City, but they had failed to heed them. After some superb dribbling play from Graham Dorrans, he found himself costless in the box, and powered a brilliant shot past the helpless Joe Hart to turn the lead from two to one. After this, West Brom pushed for a shock equaliser, but thanks to a magnificent performance from Vincent Kompany the scores stayed at 2-1.
That was until the 36th minute, when widely-criticised defender Martin Demichelis got forward for a corner and found himself costless at the far post to put the ball in the net from close range. Whilst many in the stands laughed, he did well to find himself in that position and to put the ball away as he did. That put The Blues back on the way to a simple victory.
The second half was, in comparison to the first, a very flat affair. West Brom controlled much of the possession yet despite this fact they weren’t able to create many chances for themselves, Hart being equal to much of what was asked of him. Manchester City did create chances for themselves, but were unable to make much of them.
Hearts were in mouths when Sergio Agüero went down clutching his foot in the second half, and seeing as the Argentinian star only returned from injury last week against Liverpool, it would be a huge blow to lose him again. Whilst he was able to recover from this knock and carried on playing, the same cannot be said for David Silva, who was stretchered off in pain. With no clear reports as to how long the injury will keep him out for, speculation is mounting. Thankfully, The Citizens are expecting the return of Yaya Touré for this weekend’s trip to Crystal Palace. The Ivorian was expected to miss the rest of the season when he picked up an injury at Anfield this month, but in the end it ended up not being too serious.
This loss will be a blow for West Brom, considering their close proximity to the relegation zone. As it stands, The Baggies remain three points out of the dropzone, with a game in hand and just weeks of the Premier League season remaining. The relegation dogfight is more unpredictable than ever, whilst this result may also be causing title favourites Liverpool to look over their shoulder. As unlikely as it may be, if Liverpool lose at home to Chelsea this weekend whilst Manchester City win all their remaining games, either side could win on goal difference. There’s still plenty of twists and turns in this 2013-14 season.