Man City 3 West Ham 0
The terminator strikes again. It’s becoming kind of silly the rate at which Erling Haaland is scoring goals grabbing another 2 along with an assist in this match. I think this is the best version of Haaland we’ve seen thus far at City in that his goal scoring is still at a ridiculous rate but his link-up play is improving tremendously and we’ve seen it throughout the season with Foden,Reijnders,Cherki etc who have benefitted from his hold-up play throughout the season so far. I think we’ve become accustomed to the rate at which he scores and there’s no doubt that if he stays in this league for a few more years he’ll absolutely smash Alan Shearer’s Premier League goal record.
Another clean sheet in the league for City. I said it a couple of weeks ago when City played Madrid but Pep has found his best combination defensively and it looks like he’s going to stick with it for the foreseeable future barring any injuries. Pep’s known for making changes in his teams almost every week but it looks like he’s found the right balance defensively and whilst West Ham probably should have scored in the second half City stood firm and kept the clean sheet in the end.
Are West Ham going to go down? There is so much talent in this West Ham but is Nuno the right man to keep them up this year? Every game West Ham are relying on Jarrod Bowen to fashion a bit of magic from nothing to get them a goal whilst defensively it looks like Todibo and Kilman could make a mistake at any time to give the other team a goal, it look like Burnley and Wolves are already down but it’s hard to imagine West Ham being the other team with players like Bowen, Paqueta etc who could easily play for Premier League teams.
Is this Cities best 11? On paper I think that the 11 Pep played in this game is the best side that City can put out at the minute. Obviously a fully fit and firing Rodri would come in over Nico Gonzalez but I think that’s about it unless you put Jeremy Doku in over Cherki or Foden on the flanks. I’ve been a fan of Tijjani Reijnders since he was at Milan and I think he’s at his best in and around the box as his finishing is excellent alongside his creativity that adds a lot in that City midfield, I wonder if Pep will make many changes over the Christmas period or will he try to keep the winning formula that’s working at the minute, I suppose we’ll wait and see.
Man City are the best team in the league. Whilst they will playing better teams than West Ham over the next few weeks you can’t help but get the feeling that the City players know they’re the best team in the league and are playing with an arrogance that Premier League champions need in this period of games. Even when players like Foden and Cherki aren’t playing at their absolute best they have Reijnders who chips in with the second goal, I’m not sure Arsenal have that level of depth in attack long-term to compete with a City team who are flying at the minute and don’t look like stopping any time soon.