Citizens Denied Win By Hammers

West Ham United have still only lost two games since their defeat by Nottingham Forest on 6 January. On Saturday evening, the majority of the ever-loyal fan base would have been fearing that Manchester City will inflict another defeat on them. However, that wasn’t the case as they kept their unbeaten run going by holding Josep Guardiola’s side to a 1-1 draw in Stratford.

Nuno Espírito Santo made five changes from the team that knocked Brentford out of the Emirates FA Cup five days ago, as Mads Hermansen, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo, El Hadji Malick Diouf and Valentín Castellanos were all restored to the starting line- up with Alphonse Areola, Kyle Walker-Peters and Adama Traoré dropping to the bench, while youngster Mohamadou Kanté joined the trio amongst the substitutes. Oliver Scarles didn’t make the matchday squad because of a minor injury. However, the big blow was that Crysencio Summerville was missing, due to a calf problem.

The Citizens had just fallen ten points behind in the title race after Arsenal’s late 2-0 win at home to Everton, so they knew that they had to start well here. City have a very unique style of play, where they are patient in their build-up but they tend to dominate possession. This is why the game was cagey for the first half an hour.

The home side were resilient and weren’t going to give their opponents an easy chance to break through, as they cleared all four of City’s early corners.

It was an encounter that took time to get going but when Guardiola’s team got into their rhythm, Hermansen saw an effort flash past him but thankfully, it went wide instead of beating him, while Erling Haaland’s back-post header also missed the target.

Just after the half-hour mark, there was disappointment amongst the majority inside the stadium, as Bernardo Silva put his team in front, when a cruel deflection gave the Dane no chance, even though Diouf desperately tried to clear the ball off the line.

West Ham were determined not to let their goal difference get worse and went in search of a quick equaliser. It took them just four minutes for them to find it and for the home fans to also turn their despair into delight. Wan-Bissaka won a corner which was sent into the area by captain Jarrod Bowen. Konstantinos Mavropanos then met it with a thumping header which went in off the crossbar and past visiting goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma for the defender to claim only his second goal for the club and his first in Stratford.

Shortly after, West Ham were thankful that Guardiola’s men managed to waste two chances to go back ahead before the break, as both Antoine Semenyo and Matheus Nunes didn’t even work Hermansen.

Referee Michael Oliver brought the first-half to a close and although you would have thought that Espírito Santo was possibly the happier of the two Head-Coaches, money could be placed on the fact that there would have been two very different team talks going on.

The visitors once again started the second-half brightly but the Hammers could count themselves fortunate as their opponents were clearly not at their usual scintillating best here and continued to pass up opportunities. Omar Marmoush sent their latest chance wide, before it was time for the visiting boss to change something.

Given the Spaniard was watching the action unfold from the stands after being given a touchline ban, he instructed his assistant to send on both Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki for Rayan Aït-Nouri and Marmoush on the hour mark.

Cherki was in the thick of the action as soon as he entered the fray. He linked up to great effect with Haaland and sent him through one-on-one. The striker only had Hermansen to beat, but fortunately for the Irons though, he wasn’t as prolific against them on this occasion as he usually is and the Dane made a great save. After which, a corner was awarded. The delivery was played into the box and the East Londoners managed to clear before Pablo Felipe almost turned the ball into his own net.

That was the Brazilian’s last significant action on the pitch as Soungoutou Magassa then took his place.

It was only a superb last-ditch challenge from the recently introduced French midfielder that prevented Nunes from getting his name on the scoresheet as he was on the end of a cross from Rodri. City then turned the pressure up a notch when Doku and Haaland went close to the team’s second goal but, neither of them were able to apply the telling touch.

Further substitutions were made by both teams on seventy five minutes. Traoré was called upon by the hosts to replace Castellanos, while a double change was made for the Citizens, as Silva and Semenyo made way for Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden.

The chances kept flowing at either end, and as expected, Hermansen was the busier of the two goalkeepers. Foden’s first contribution came just after coming on when he tested the Dane but fortunately, he was equal to the midfielder’s effort.

The closing stages of the contest were largely dominated by the visitors and only great defending, mostly from the Irons’ goalscorer kept them at bay.

With little time remaining, in an order to break up the play, Espírito Santo made a third and final change for his team, as Kanté was brought on in place of the skipper.

The final whistle was greeted with loud cheers as if the home side had won but a point was enough to lift them above Nottingham Forest and out of the relegation zone for the first time since early December. They will attempt to add more points to their current total next Sunday when they travel to Villa Park and take on Aston Villa.