Manchester City beat West Ham United once again in the league with a 2-1 victory at a snow-covered Etihad Stadium.
The citizens started the game very slowly and struggled to break down a well-organised West Ham defence.
David Moyes expressed his disappointment that the Londoners didn’t take their chances early on telling BBC Sports “the game plan was to have a go in the first 10 minutes which we did, and we missed two or three big chances.”
An early Riyad Mahrez goal was quickly disallowed for offside retaining the traveller’s clean sheet for the time being.
Inevitably City found its way through the Hammer’s defence after 33 minutes with captain Ilkay Gundogan finding the back of the net from a deflected Mahrez attempt at the far post.
The second half was delayed as ground staff worked hard to clear the snowstorm that completely covered the pitch.
Pep Guardiola told the BBC: “I think the groundkeepers, the men who took care of the pitch, were the men of the match. They did an incredible job so we could play the game today.”
The London side kept the host out for as long as they could. Aaron Cresswell going off injured after he slid into the goal post after clearing Gabriel Jesus’s attempt off the line.
Guardiola’s side finally scored their second goal on the 90th-minute mark with substitute Fernandinho slotting Gundogan’s pass bottom left of West Ham’s keepers Lukasz Fabianski’s goal.
Manuel Lanzini scored an outstanding 94th-minute goal after the Manchester club failed to clear their box.
Unfortunately for the travellers it was too little too late as they couldn’t find an equaliser in the final minute.
The Citizens moved up to just one point behind league leaders Chelsea. Guardiola was very happy with the performance of his team saying:
“The amount of chances we created, especially in the first half, in the condition that both teams played in – it was a huge victory for us, for the effort of the players and the performance.
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