Manchester City almost certainly booked their place in this season’s Capital One Cup Final, following a storming 6-0 victory over their semi-final opponents West Ham United in the first leg of the tie at the Etihad Stadium. This win continued The Blues’ fine form for another game, and gives Manuel Pellegrini a huge shot at his first trophy in England. However, the performance in Wednesday’s game was hardly a vintage one from the Manchester side, with the home side playing much of the game in first-gear.
Pellegrini fielded a team of perhaps not first-choice players, but most certainly world-class on the most part. The partnership of Álvaro Negredo and Edin Džeko, a pairing which was often been met with mixed feelings since Sergio Agüero’s injury back in December, continued in this game, and it is fair to say the gamble of playing the two towering strikers up-front together paid off, with the pair scoring five goals between them.
Meanwhile, new loan signing Roger Johnson made his debut in an injury-ravaged West Ham defence. The Englishman only sealed his temporary move from Wolves earlier this week, and to go straight in at the deep end with a baptism of fire against arguably the best team in the country was always going to be difficult. However, the 30-year-old hardly covered himself in glory on his debut.
The first-half started off in what has become a typical fashion for The Blues once again this season, with much of the play happening in the visitors’ half. There were chances missed from The Citizens early on, but they weren’t made to pay, as The Hammers’ rare ventures forward on the counter came to little. Negredo was able to give his side the lead after just 12 minutes, when Yaya Touré played a superb ball over the top of the defence, and the Spanish striker volleyed home from close-range, with superb technique.
The second came 14 minutes later, when Negredo pounced on a through-ball from his strike partner to find himself in a superb position. The Spaniard was able to easily chip the ball over the on-rushing Adrián and into the top of the net to double the hosts’ lead. Another 14 minutes on, and another goal was soon added to City’s tally. Touré picked up the ball in midfield, and charged forward with it in his usual fashion; once in the box, he picked his moment to roll under Adrián, and put City three goals ahead before the break.
The second half wasn’t even 4 minutes old when Álvaro Negredo completed his hat-trick with Manchester City’s fourth goal. A deflected pass from David Silva following some good play by Samir Nasri found its way to Negredo in space, who was able to curl a delightful effort past his countryman in the West Ham goal, to put the game beyond any reasonable doubt. City’s fifth then came in the 60th minute, after another good move by the home team. David Silva was able to slide a threaded pass through the defence to Gaël Clichy, who crossed low and hard to the Bosnian Džeko, who placed an effort past the goalkeeper for his first of the game.
After this goal, The Blues continued to stage an assault on West Ham’s goal, and if not for some fine stops by Adrián, the score could have been more. However, City were able to notch a sixth goal in injury time. Some more superb passing play found its way to an unmarked Džeko in the box, who was able to hit a first-time effort into the back of the net to make the win look yet more impressive.
In truth, West Ham United posed little or no threat to Manchester City’s game throughout the 90 minutes. It is far from the best we’ve seen from The Citizens this campaign, but still more than impressive enough to have secured another trip to Wembley for the Manchester team. There is still the return leg to be played of course, but Sam Allardyce can surely not turn a six-goal deficit around. All eyes will now be on Old Trafford to see if Manchester United can recover from their shock loss at The Stadium of Light on Tuesday. The winner of that tie is sure to be Manchester City’s Wembley opponent.
