History repeated itself on Saturday as West Ham slumped to a 5-0 defeat from Manchester City.
Despite impressing early on, an injection of pace down the wing from Kyle Walker gave Jesus the opportunity to put his team in front. From then, we remained competitive but failed to look threatening.
As is the case with Manchester City, they can turn up the gears when they want. A half-time team talk from Guardiola seemed to do the trick as they scored immediately after the break. West Ham looked at 6s and 7s when Sterling went on to make it 3-0, only for it to be ruled out thanks to VAR.
From this point, West Ham capitulated. Refusing to back down, Pellegrini bought on Hernandez and Snodgrass to freshen the team and replace the injured Felipe Anderson.
This was to no avail. Manchester City turned the screw further and scored another two goals, despite Lukasz Fabianski making a save from Sergio Aguero’s first penalty. Welcome to the era of VAR!
This aside, the Hammers would have lost on the day. The fans seem to have taken this one badly. A pre-season of optimism seems to have vanished instantly, whilst others had already resigned this game to a loss before it had begun.
Let’s have a look at my ratings for the team and an honest evaluation of their performance.
