A magnificent performance from The Hammers saw them take all three points in Manchester, to complete what has been a disapointing week for the league leaders. Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho got the goals for the visitors and even with Manchester City's club-record signing, Kevin de Bruyne, halving the deficit before the interval, it was a robust, efficient defensive display to shut out City's wave of attacks throughout the second-half.
After the midweek disappointment in losing to Juventus at the Etihad, the home side gave a first start to two new Manchester City arrivals, who'd joined for a combined fee of £87.5million pounds in the final few weeks of the transfer window - Nicolas Otámendi and de Bruyne. David Silva was also set to start, however he was injured in the warm-up so was replaced by Jesús Navas. West Ham were coming off two fabulous victories against Liverpool at Anfield and at home to Newcastle respectively so came into this game with quiet confidence about their chances of grabbing some sort of positive result.
Hammers enjoy fast start and take advantage
It took just six minutes for the match's opening goal. Victor Moses picked up the ball and ran at the City defence, with his sweetly-struck low effort beating Joe Hart and nestling into the corner of the net, giving the visitors a shock lead early on. It could have been two shortly afterwards, if not for a vital interception by Otámendi to keep the deficit at one, for the time-being at least.
Carl Jenkinson was looking to feed the run of Sakho in the area, un-marked - but his cross was blocked out for a corner-kick. Warning signs for the hosts, who struggled to grab a foothold in the match in the early exchanges, but Bilic's side managed to double their lead soon afterward.
A corner-kick, drilled into the box by Dimitri Payet, found the head of Winston Reid at the back post. The ball trickled towards the six-yard box, and a goal-mouth scramble was poorly dealt with by the City backline - as Sakho found himself in space to strike from close-range, for which Hart had no answer.
City get back into the match, through a new arrival
Bacary Sagna's inviting delivery into the box could have easily resulted in a goal for City, but Sergio Agüero's resulting effort was dealt with by Adrían, who had to react quickly to deny his opponents on a number of occasions. Eliaquim Mangala made a brilliantly-timed block to deny Sakho, who was played through by Payet - who asserted his dominance with another impressive display from all areas within midfield.
As the half-time whistle approached, City responded by halving the deficit. Kevin de Bruyne's well-struck effort evaded the low dive of Adrían into the bottom corner, for his first goal on his first competitive start in the sky Blues' shirt.
The second-half meanwhile, was much more of a cagey affair in truth. West Ham knew that City would crank up the pressure, and defended with all of their might to hang on. Adrían made plenty of saves to keep his side in-front, especially when Otámendi's header seemed as though it was creeping in below the upper side of the crossbar.
A fantastic display of patience and clinical finishing away from home, West Ham have leapfrogged three sides to find themselves in second place at the end of play on Saturday evening - with Winston Reid and Adrían their standout performers on a rather frustrating evening for the hosts.
Manchester City meanwhile, will be ruing the chances missed - having dominated the second-half, with a plethora of opportunities to level and grab a winner too. Having now lost two consecutive fixtures, they have now also relinquished their unbeaten run of games, which stretched to a club-record eleven league matches.
