Etihad-Stadium

Summary: Manchester City tightened their grip on second place after beating West Ham at the Etihad Stadium.

This was the first match since Roberto Mancini's men were dethroned as Premier League champions by neighbours Manchester United and their response will have pleased the Italian.

With David Silva back in the side City's football was fluent and rhythmic at times but they had to wait until the 28th minute before finally puncturing the Hammers rearguard.

An intricate exchange of passes between Silva and Samir Nasri before the latter laid the ball on a plate for Sergio Aguero to score from close range.

The hosts stepped up their dominance and should have doubled their lead either side of the break but spurned a number of chances as the anxiety levels multiplied at the Etihad until Yaya Toure put the game to bed with seven minutes to go with a thunderous strike into the top corner from distance.

There was still time for West Ham to grab a consolation when Andy Carroll chested the ball down in the box and fired through Joe Hart's legs, whose frantic attempts to stop it crossing the line were ultimately in vain.

 

Roberto Mancini post-match…"I'm happy for this performance. I'm unhappy for the goals we missed as we could have scored more goals but this has been our problem this season."

Sam Allardyce post-match…"Our goals away have been poor this year and we must improve on that next season. We'll hopefully address that in the summer but before that we have got three important games and we will try to keep improving our performances."

Good day for…Sergio Aguero: Worked tirelessly against a stubborn West Ham rearguard and saw his efforts rewarded with the easiest goal he's ever likely to score  in a City shirt.

Bad day for…Joey O'Brien: Faced the unenviable task of shackling David Silva for an afternoon and suffered the same fate as most Premier League full backs who've come up against the Spaniard. Was booked for a poor tackle on Zabaleta in the second half.