West Ham Utd 0-4 Manchester City

West Ham were humbled and humiliated for the second time in a matter of weeks at the hands of Manchester City at the Olympic Stadium tonight.

Beaten 5-0 in the third round of the FA Cup at the beginning of January, the Hammers were a whisker away from repeating that record home defeat at their new stadium tonight.

West Ham had barely seen the ball before the rout began on 17 minutes; Aaron Cresswell conceded possession cheaply allowing the visitors to counter, leading to Kevin De Bruyne applying a simple finish.

And a shellshocked United barely had time to recover before the Citizens doubled their lead; this time it was left to David Silva to convert Leroy Sane's deflected centre.

The rest of the opening half followed a similar pattern with West Ham seemingly attempting to hold on to a two-goal deficit, showing little in terms of attacking intention.

If that was indeed the plan then it failed miserably, as new boy Gabriel Jesus was able to celebrate a first goal for his new club - converting Raheem Stirling's low cross with Darren Randolph once again unable to intervene - to leave West Ham facing a three-goal deficit at the break.




Any faint hopes of a repeat of the Scott Parker-inspired come back against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns back in 2011 were dashed when City added insult to injury by adding a fourth midway through the second period.

New signing Jose Fonte had endured a difficult night up to that point but it got a whole lot worse when he was adjudged to have tripped Stirling inside the penalty area, allowing Yaya Toure to make it 4-0 from the ensuing spot kick.




In fairness to the Portuguese defender, contact was minimal and its impact embarrassingly overplayed by the City player whose 'professionalism' might have won his team a penalty, but few friends.

By the time Toure's penalty hit the back of the net, the Olympic Stadium was almost a third empty; the fans, like the players simply seemed to lose interest on another miserable night in Stratford.




West Ham Utd: Randolph, Byram, Fonte, Reid, Cresswell, Obiang (Snodgrass 64), Noble, Feghouli (Fernandes 64), Lanzini, Antonio, Carroll (Fletcher 79).

Subs not used: Adrian, Collins, Calleri, Quina.

Bookings: Obiang, Lanzini, Carroll.

Manchester City: Cabellero, Sagna, Stones, Otamendi, Kolarov, Toure, Silva (Delph 80), Sane, De Bruyne (Fernandinho 67), Sterling (Aguero 73), Jesus.

Subs not used: Bravo, Zabaleta, Kompany, Navas.

Bookings: De Bruyne, Sterling, Jesus.

Referee: Kevin Friend.