West Ham 1, Manchester City 3
Manchester City maintained their 100% start to the season with a comeback victory to beat West Ham at the London Stadium.
Embed from Getty ImagesGoals by Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva, and Erling Haaland saw off the Hammers after James Ward-Prowse had opened the scoring in London.
Pep Guardiola was back in the City dugout after a month out following back surgery and made two changes from the team that beat Fulham before the international break.
He praised winger Jeremy Doku for sparking the City comeback win, improving on a ’shy’ debut against Fulham, and being brave and taking on Hammers defenders one on one to drive City towards the win.
The injured Mateo Kovacic was replaced by Bernardo Silva while Josko Gvardiol came in for Nathan Ake.
James Ward-Prowse had given the Hammers a shock first half lead following a fast break despite City dominating the play and having 17 shots on goal by half time.
A diving header by Ward-Prowse in the 36th minute from a cross by Vladimir Coufal proved only a temporary setback as City failed to score despite chances by Rodri, Ruben Dias, and several efforts by Erling Haaland including shots cleared off the line by Tomas Soucek and Nayef Aguerd and an acrobatic save from Alphonse Areola.
All of the effort that City put in was rewarded seconds into the second half when Jeremy Doku drilled the ball home after cutting inside from the left flank after Julian Alvarez released him.
Ederson produced a superb save to deny Kurt Zouma as West Ham almost retook the lead.
Alvarez had hit the post with a free kick but the Argentine later turned provider when he lifted a ball over the West Ham defence where Bernardo Silva’s finish put City into the lead after 76 minutes.
And Haaland’s hard work was finally rewarded with a goal of his own with 4 minutes to go when he rifled in a late third for City who finished with an astonishing 29 shots on goal and 15 on target.