Up until half-time of their match against Man City, West Ham manager, David Moyes, would’ve been delighted by his team’s showing, however, it all unravelled in a one-sided second-half.
Once again, Pep Guardiola’s swashbucklers showed their mettle and why they are going to be the team to beat in 2023/24.
Jeremy Doku’s superb individual effort got City back on level terms less than a minute after the restart at the London Stadium, and from that point on things looked ominous for the Hammers.
Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland made the game safe for the visitors, and it was a move that involved the Norwegian that drew the ire of former West Ham player, Tony Gale, who was co-commentating on the match.
Kyle Walker showed Kurt Zouma a clean pair of heels before crossing to Haaland, who could only hit Alphonse Areola with his shot.
The ease with which the England international went past Zouma clearly irked Gale, however.
“He looked like he was running in quicksand,” he said (h/t Hammers News).
“It didn’t seem right how he was running. He’s far too relaxed and Walker beat him to it.”
Whilst Gale was correct in his viewpoint for that particular pattern of play, it shouldn’t detract from what was a reasonable performance from both Zouma and his team-mates.
On another day the Hammers might have got at least a point from the match, but City have already hit that sweet spot where no game is out of reach for them and they’ll just keep on knocking at the door until they get their reward.