Manchester City lay it down

Finally. Football again. There were some interesting developments and lots of new players on the pitch yesterday as Manchester City steamrolled West Ham.

While Manchester City were world beaters in the first 20 minutes against West Ham, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and call the team re-born. They may just be: sharp and purposeful away at Upton Park, but did we get an accurate reflection?

The reason I say this is because West Ham were a tactical nightmare and a disaster in central midfield. Man City ran them over in the middle of the park. In fact a non-league side could have run the team I saw over.

Manchester City played 5 in midfield to great effect, allowing new signing Elano to run rampant. Martin Petrov was excellent and Micah Richards, for me, was the best player on the pitch. Header after header, clearance after clearance, Richards kept the back a locked gate and played some truly class football.

City were also well organized, credit to Sven, and looked in-sync with each other. As for West Ham, they need Julien Flaubert badly. Dean Ashton, first time on the pitch in a year was doing his best impression of Ronaldo in the first game of the last World Cup. He needs fitness, badly. West Ham have not improved yet.

New signings Freddie Ljungberg and Craig Bellamy played respectably, Ljungberg in particular missing a tap in by inches. A sign of hope for West Ham was their performance in the second period improved significantly.

I fully expected West Ham to win this match at home against a team that has hardly played together, losing 2-0 the way they did, it could be a long season for them. Manchester City deserve full credit for their quality and win, with a long season ahead, stiffer tests will appear.