Goals from Morgan Amalfitano and Diafra Sakho secured a 2-1 victory for West Ham over current champions Manchester City.

City dominated early on before Amalfitano tapped in to give the home side the lead in the 20th minute, West Ham continued to trouble the champions before Sakho doubled their lead. David Silva got one back for the away side but in the end it wasn’t enough.

It was Manchester City who dominated the early proceedings with both Silva and Vincent Kompany coming close to finding the net.

West Ham would of took the lead in the 18th minute if not for Joe Hart after a costless kick was headed down into Enner Valencia but the England number one stands up well to block the effort.

Two minutes later the home side took the lead, Alex Song played a brilliant through ball to Valencia who showed his pace to get to the by-line before he played across the area beyond the reach of Pablo Zabaleta and Amalfitano is there to tap it in.

Stewart Downing nearly doubled the hammers lead when Zabaleta’s attempted headed clearance falls to the winger but his head was just over the crossbar.

Manchester City had half chances to equalise with Sergio Aguero dragging his effort wide and Yaya Toure’s costless kick was blocked.

West Ham came very close to making it two right on the stroke of half time when the ball was put across the face of goal from a well worked set piece but neither Valencia or James Collins could get a boot on it.

West Ham continued their good play at the beginning of the second half when Song’s brilliant rabona cross was chested down to Downing but his effort was wide of the mark. Sakho managed to pull away from the defender to get on Noble’s good ball into the area but his attempted volley was over the bar.

Manchester City could have easily had an equaliser when Aguero’s shot from a tight angle was turned away by the foot of Adrian and then the Argentine hits the bar.

The away side hit the woodwork again in the 73rd minute, Silva played it too Toure but his curling effort clipped the top of the crossbar.

City then went two behind only a minute later, Sakho managed to get his head onto a cross into the area and it looked like Hart produced a brilliant save but the technology ruled it a goal and City found themselves with a mountain to climb.

Manuel Pelligrini’s side managed to get one back three minutes later, Silva showed some great trickery to get beyond the West Ham defenders and he beautifully curled it into the bottom corner.

City continued to battle for the equaliser right until the end when substitute Stephan Jovetic turned well and fizzed a shot at goal but Adrian did well to palm it away.  The final effort of the match fell to City when Aleksandar Kolarov had a shot from distance but the deflection from James Collins took it over.

West Ham played an excellent game and they were well deserving of their three points, City escapades in Moscow midweek seemed to have effected them and now five points behind Chelsea it could prove a struggle to keep up with Jose Mourinho’s side. 

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.