West Ham 0-5 Man City by Paul Donovan at the London Stadium

WEST HAM suffered a mauling at the hands of Manchester City, who were back to their brilliant best in this third round FA cup encounter on Friday night. The home team began well trading blows with City.

The first chance fell to David Silva, who was thwarted by Adrian diving at his feet. Sofiane Feghouli and Manuel Lanzini then combined to set up Michail Antonio but his shot was beaten away by City keeper Willy Caballero.

It was not until the half hour mark that the deadlock was broken. Pablo Zabaleta, playing in midfield, dived over Angelo Ogbonna’s outstretched leg to win his side a penalty. Yaya Toure duly converted.

The Hammers had the opportunity to hit back immediately with Antonio seeing his swerving shot pushed away by Caballero, to the advancing Feghouli who put his follow up wide of an open goal.

That was the last real threat from the home team as City took control.

Working between the West Ham lines, the visitors made space for themselves.

First, Bacary Sagna saw an under-pressure Havard Nordtveit divert the ball past home keeper Adrian into his own net.

Then, a similar move saw Sterling cross for Silva to finish off. Any hope of a West Ham revival after the break was short lived, as a drive from Toure was deflected home by Sergio Aguero. A

t this stage, those home fans that stayed, were wondering how many goals City were going to score. In the event it was only one more. John Stones rising to meet a corner in the 83rd minute to make it five. West Ham manager Slaven Bilic had the look of a man pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again and again.

Following a creditable draw away at Liverpool, his team then won three games on the trot, only to follow up with three more defeats.

“Now is the time to show our character. We got 10 points after the Liverpool game, it is now time to do that again,” said Bilic, who lamented the amount of space his side allowed the visitors. “We didn’t give that space with 10 against Manchester United but did give that space tonight.”

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