Toure "Hammer" gives City win over West Ham

MANCHESTER CITY 2-1 WEST HAM UNITED

Yaya Toure fantastic strike in the last ten minutes of the game sealed the points for the out-going champions as Manchester City looked to strengthen their grip on 2nd spot in the league table, as they overcame a difficult West Ham United defensive display at the Etihad Stadium in the early kick off game, with a convincing 2-1 win as they bounced back from losing their premier league crown last week.

                                                                                        

Early stages of the contest were dominated by the home side as City looked to shrug off the 3-1 lost to Tottenham last weekend. The Blues were having all the possession but weren`t able to find any way through the West Ham defence as they pressed and pressed them, West Ham stifled any good play that home side were producing as they looked to mark returning David Silva out the game as they singled him out for the early part of the game. Ex-West Ham forward Carlos Tevez had the game first effort on target as the Argentinean striker shot was saved by Jussi Jaakelainen in the Hammers goals.

City then controlled the game as they managed to find gaps in the visitors back line as the home side found luck down the left wing as they were pulling them out of position, and if not for James Collins at the heart of the West Ham defence then they might have found themselves struggling as City were creating more and more chances. The Visitors hard defending was a bit too tough for the official and when Andy Carroll`s challenge on the Sergio Aguero was like a strikers tackle, Referee Howard Webb shown the England striker a yellow card for his foul on the small Argentine forward.

Another attack by the home side almost saw Aguero nearly break the deadlock and give the home side lead, as he tried to divert the ball goal wards with his flick past Jaaskelainen but his attempt hit the post and ran out of play. That seemed to raise the confidence levels a bit more amongst the City ranks and fans alike as the chances were coming abit more now. 
At 23 minutes into the game the whole crowd stood up for a minutes applause to pay tribute to the Late-Marc Vivien Foe, as this June marks the 10th Anniversary of his sad death when he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch while playing for Cameroon in the Confederations cup in France. 

So as City & West Ham were former teams of his it was decided by fans and club officials to have minute’s applause in the players memory as a mark of respect. And both teams sets of fans did indeed clap to a standing ovation.

West Ham nearly scored during the applause as Mohamed Diame had a snatch shot that connected and bounced off Joe Hart chest luckily not to any of the forwards nearby.

Eventually the breakthrough came for the home side, as a great team passing build up by the Midfield trio of Yaya Toure, David Silva and Samir Nasri led them to the opening goal of the game.

Toure played the ball to the Nasri who played a one two with Silva in the box and the Frenchman's low cross towards the 5 yard box was met by Sergio Aguero whose shot towards the near post beat the keeper to give the home side the 1-0 lead.

Players celebrate 1st goal

It was nearly 2-0 minutes later as a Nasri shot at Jussi Jaakelainen was spilled by the Finnish shot stopper and Pablo Zabeleta came running in on the rebound and his effort was instinctively saved by the keeper who stopped the Argentine defender from scoring knocking it out for a corner kick. 

City were growing in confidence after the goal and more good passing play by them gave Gareth Barry a chance as the ball was laid off by Toure outside the area, but the midfielder effort was blazed high over the goals and the move came to nothing.

West Ham rarely did much attacking in the City half in the first 45 minutes as the back 4 for the home side snuffed everything out that they tried to create . Andy Carroll had a header deflected over the bar for a corner but that was as good as it got for the away side as they were getting nearly all the men behind the ball except for the tall England striker trying to stop City. 

Second half West Ham United came out strongly as Zabeleta had to play the ball out for a corner as a good cross came in by O Neil for the away side but no one was there in a claret and blue shirt on the end of it.

Vincent Kompany had an audacious effort from outside the area from a cleared corner but the Belgian defender shot was high over the bar and shown why he better suited as a defender than a forward with that shot.

The Hammers seemed more of an attacking threat in the second half and the game was becoming open a bit more as City seemed to have a few counter attacks as West Ham pressured the home team more with their play now.

Carlos Tevez had a half chance as brilliant play by Samir Nasri set him up as some great ball control drew defenders near and then flicked it over the defence for Tevez,but his shot was blocked by Winston Reid and went out for a corner kick.

The Visitors appealed for a penalty when a cross was blocked by Pablo Zabeleta arm which was against his chest and would have been very harsh to give it for that. West Ham had another chance as Ricardo Vaz Te crossed in and Kompany clearing header came off Carroll who was coming in and it skimmed off his head going out for a throw in.

Samir Nasri then had a shot from an angle driven straight at Jaaskelainen and the ball was cleared away from his defenders as West Ham breathed sigh of relief as they managed to bring it away for their own attack but they made no ground on goal. 

City then had possession solidly for about 3 minutes and must have made at least 50 plus passes around the Hammers penalty area as the away side stood off them and allowed them to keep the ball trying to force them to shoot from long range. City tried to create another chance as Aguero ran onto a ball passed expertly through by Silva on the break, Aguero then waited before feeding his fellow countryman in Tevez and his shot was blocked by O Brien for a corner kick.

The home side broke on the counter-attack again after they cleared the ball from a United attack with Aguero leading the attack playing the ball wide out to Tevez, Tevez then whipped a great low cross beating the defender and Nasri made the wrong choice of trying to score poking with his right foot when his left foot was the better option by far. 

Frustration got to Joey O Brien as he just seemed to go for the man and not the ball when he got Zabeleta, The Argentine was not best pleased and tried to tell him that before players came in to stop anything happening, Howard Webb decided to book both players over the incident and resume the match.

Yaya Toure wheels away after his stunner

Then came the killer goal as play down the West Ham left with Milner in possession of the ball, he passed to Nasri who then gave it Yaya Toure just outside the box, the midfielder controlled with his right foot knocked it onto his left foot and he struck a thunder bolt in the top corner beating the keeper all ends up with a fantastic effort by the Ivorian midfielder for 2-0 in the 82nd minute.

Mancini decided then to make a second substitute as Carlos Tevez came off for Javi Garcia for the remainder of the game. The game looked over by then till Carroll again had a shot on target with was saved by Joe Hart and from that resulting play Hart seemed to have pulled something in making the save and looked in agony as he grimaced in pain as the physio looked at him.

Hart lets Carroll effort slip by

In the 4 minutes added on both sides could have scored as firstly Sergio Aguero had a great chance for 3-0 as Zabeleta weak shot wasn`t held and fumbled by Jaaskelainen, the forward came in to which the Finn made a intelligent save as he pushed the ball against the Argentine shin and went out of play missing the net just, Right at the death of the game Carroll persistence paid off as Diame cross was chested by Carroll and then his shot squirmed in under Joe Hart for 2-1 score line to give them a glimmer of hope but there wasn`t enough time to score again. 


City took the spoils and with a hard fought win guaranteed European football for next season and also interesting meant that Wigan who they meet in the FA Cup Final in a few weeks time will be handed a European place due to City not able now to finish outside the top 5, and Wigan for reaching the final will be given the extra place.