review of West Ham match

By: j | August 24th, 2008

This is without question a match that months from now Man City supporters will look back on. Whether it is a turning point when one of the finest managers in the game moved his club forward or a one-match taste of brilliance remains to be seen however within a difficult summer of confusion around Eastlands, Man City’s 3-0 victory over West Ham was a warm breeze of relief.

The much ballyhooed tactical battle between two superb managers never really got off ground as Mark Noble received his second yellow-card in four minutes and The Hammers were forced to play a man down from the thirty-seventh minute of the match. Quite honestly that was a very unfortunate call that resulted from a dubious first yellow card when he slipped and the one and only Howard Webb showed the yellow for a hand-ball. It was certainly not deserving of a yellow and with the second yellow resulting from a miserably timed challenge, Mark Noble was off for the day and the match was slipping away from West Ham. However prior to that City was certainly the more aggressive side and narrowly missed lodging the first goal of the match on numerous occasions. Deserving of special mention, Stephen Ireland decided to make his claim he should be in the starting grid as he was a whirlwind of inspiration and tormented the West Ham defense. As it relates to my favourite Bulgarian, I am repeating my standard issue but I think I have to up the ante – maybe he should be “Mr. Martin Petrov” because he really is the most underrated player I can think of in the Premier League. With this in mind to make it easy for the balance of the campaign I’ll use the following regarding Mr. Petrov’s play today:

Mr. Martin Petrov continues to above a cut above the rest of the City squad. The twenty-nine year-old Bulgarian international is surely the most valuable player to his team in the Premier League and the hopes of Manchester City ride on him.

After a very dangerous head-injury to Micah Richards (details to follow with accurate medical report) at the fifty-ninth minute, Daniel Sturridge scored a tremendous goal, with an extraordinary left-foot strike to the back of the net after collecting a pass with one-touch. It was brilliant control and showed years of experience well beyond his years. West Ham disintegrated at that time and the Stephen Ireland to Elano practice-fun took over with two goals in six minutes through their interplay. At the seventieth minute and the seventy-sixth, Stephen Ireland fed Elano with a deft cut-back pass which was expertly finished both times. The balance of the match wore on with West Ham really not threatening Joe Hart who was amiably defended by crafty old veteran Vincent Kompany. Oh wait, this was his first match for City and I’m not so sure he wasn’t hoping that City would be wearing name tags because he surely had no experience playing with his new teammates. And yet as I say that he led the defense and looked like an experienced veteran on the squad. Simply a brilliant addition.

Man City has a short week with a crucial match against FC Midtjylland on Thursday. I will be report separately on the Micah Richards injury but early press-reports are suggesting he has been cleared of a neck injury.