West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City: Mavropanos 35; Silva 31
Surely this is the end of the race for Manchester City. West Ham’s defiant response to the visitors’ opener through Konstantinos Mavropanos felt infinitely worse given that Arsenal had shaken themselves awake at the death to beat Everton 2-0 in the earlier fixture at the Emirates.
Now there are nine points between the Premier League’s top two teams and even City’s game in hand feels like nothing. As far as title contention goes, this feels like the week it ended.
Pep did not feel that way after the game. “It’s not over! We continue, we have an incredible team,” City’s manager crowed. “We have to try it until the end. When it is not possible we will congratulate the champion.”
Pre-game, Guardiola had said that his side could not afford to drop points at West Ham as it would surely mean the end of their title hopes, and while it is understandable that he would continue to egg his team on despite this result, it is difficult to argue that he was not correct in his assessment.
Just days after a chastening 3-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League, a draw against the league’s 18th-placed team was another body blow for City. But of course for West Ham and Nuno Espirito Santo, this result was everything. They are out of the relegation zone and up to 17th, at least until Nottingham Forest play Fulham.
Regardless of what happens in that fixture, given the London club’s form and this morale-boosting result against Guardiola’s men, West Ham supporters will have every reason to believe they will avoid the dreaded drop this season. It has been a long time since those miserable early weeks of the season when the entire atmosphere exuded toxicity and they could not decide whether they hated the players or the club hierarchy more.
With Guardiola serving a touchline ban and watching on from the stands, City began in their typical possession-hogging manner. But West Ham were content to let them have the ball in harmless areas. For all their control, there was little to offer for City in the way of creativity. Erling Haaland was again a peripheral figure. His poor form in front of goal continues.
Bernardo Silva put City ahead just after the half hour. Scampering onto Omar Marmoush’s pass, he mishit a cross but the ball looped over the head of West Ham goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and dropped inside the far post. A rare moment of error from a man who has been central to West Ham’s resurgence of late.
West Ham responded quickly. Jarrod Bowen’s in-swinging corner four minutes later was poorly handled by Gianluigi Donnarumma, who failed in his attempt to claw it away and Mavropanos headed in the equaliser.
City’s second-half performance was marginally better but still a pale imitation of their former selves. Guardiola was constantly on the phone with assistant Pep Ljinders and he quite literally rung the changes, swapping Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush for Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki. Haaland remained and came close when he almost turned in a cross late on, but this was West Ham’s night.
