City relieved as bright start fades

Manchester City 2 West Ham Utd 1:MANCHESTER CITY'S supporters celebrated with "the Poznan" and, for very different reasons, West Ham's followers must have been tempted to turn their backs to the pitch, too. This was their fifth successive defeat and, slowly but surely, the chilly fingers of relegation are closing around their neck.

The Premier League’s bottom club could never recover after the defensive lapses that allowed Nigel de Jong and Pablo Zabaleta to establish City’s two-goal lead inside the opening quarter of an hour.

Demba Ba’s 33rd-minute goal offered hope but a better side would have taken advantage of what was, at times, a strangely disjointed performance from their hosts.

Perhaps City were guilty of complacency once they had discovered how easily this West Ham side can be prised open.

Their manager, Roberto Mancini, certainly looked harassed on the touchline because a thrashing had looked on the cards after De Jong had placed a 20-yard shot past Robert Green for the first goal of his City career, followed two minutes later by David Silva setting up Zabaleta to fire in a low, diagonal shot that Lars Jacobsen could only help into the net.

Instead, the FA Cup finalists could not turn their superiority into more goals, enduring some anxious moments once Ba had pounced on a loose ball inside the penalty area to turn in a goal that might have had more damaging repercussions for Mancini’s team had West Ham shown a greater sense of ambition.

City were not overly convincing but they still created the more inviting chances, Mario Balotelli curling one effort against the crossbar and seeing another cleared off the goalline during some concerted second-half pressure.

They also had the game’s two outstanding performers in Silva and Yaya Toure but it was still a sense of relief inside Eastlands once the final whistle went for a victory that puts City seven points clear of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in the battle for the fourth Champions League place, with a game in hand on the Merseyside club.

Guardian Service