WEST BROM 1, MANCHESTER CITY 2
Ten-man City were heading for defeat at The Hawthorns when they were rescued by a late double from substitute Edin Dzeko.
The winner was scored two minutes into injury time after City had James Milner sent off for a professional foul midway through the first half.
West Brom were left to rue late gilt-edged chances wasted by Romelu Lukaku as Dzeko’s brace subsequently stole the points away from them.
City captain Vincent Kompany was culpable for his mistake which allowed Shane Long to put West Brom into the lead in the second half but he paid tribute to super-sub Dzeko whose goals snatched the three points at the end:
“The big man Edin Dzeko proved his worth again. We showed a lot of spirit after going down to 10 men. Great performance! Great support!” Kompany later tweeted.
City’s assistant manager David Platt was pleased with the result after going down to 10 men so early.
He said: “Decisions went against us today but we had to deal with it and I think we deserved the result.
“I thought we controlled the first half, despite going down to 10 men, and it was tremendous how we stuck together in the second half and created so many chances.
“It’s a great fillip to win after playing for almost 70 minutes with 10 men.” he added.
“When we got ourselves back into it with the first goal we managed to defend it and got the winner from a quality counter attack, so we’re delighted with it.”
City had to cope with 10 men for over an hour after Milner was deemed to be the last man when he brought Long down on the edge of the area after the Irishman had evaded Kompany to collect Peter Odemwingie’s 67th minute through ball.
Despite being a man down with most of the match to go City remained the better side for much of the game, relatively untested by the home side, but they were stunned when Long’s second half strike seemed to have handed the Baggies another home win before Dzeko came off the bench to snatch all three points.
Dzeko wasn’t on the pitch long before he rose to head the 80th minute equaliser from a Carlos Tevez set piece before West Brom were sliced apart by a City counter attack during injury time and substitute Sergio Aguero slipped the ball to the Bosnian who poached the winner.