West Brom manager Tony Pulis took full responsibility for his sides 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in their opening game of the new Premier League season.

The visitors took the the lead through a deflected Yaya Toure goal on nine minutes.

The Ivorian doubled his sides lead midway through the first-half before Vincent Kompany made sure of the points after the break.

But after the game Pulis admitted that he got his tactics wrong. He said: “Sometimes as a manager you hold your hands up. I wanted to play Saido (Berahino) and Rickie (Lambert) tonight but it’s going against everything I’ve ever done against the bigger teams.”

City’s opening goal was fortunate to say the least.  Toure’s tame shot from the edge of the box seemed to flick of David Silva, who was outstanding throughout, and then brush off Craig Dawson before trickling past Boaz Myhill and into the net.

But if the visitors first goal was fortunate then their second was majestic and came from a build-up consisting of 18 passes.

The final two of those passes was a neat exchange between Wilfried Bony and Toure before the midfielder curled a right-footed shot past Myhill and into the roof of the net from the edge of the box.

Berahino thought he had got his side back into the game just before half-time when he latched onto a through ball from James Morrison before slotting the ball past Joe Hart. Unfortunately for the striker, the goal was ruled out for being fractionally offside.

Raheem Sterling was making his competitive debut for the Citizens following his £49 million move from Liverpool. And his best chance of the game came after the interval only for the England international to be denied by Myhill.

But the game was put to bed with just over half-an-hour left to play. Silva whipped a left-wing corner towards the near post which Kompany attacked with a glancing header, and shoulder, before looping over Myhill and into the far corner.

After the game City manager Manuel Pellegrini was quick to praise Toure’s contribution after he was heavily criticised for his poor performances last season.  

He said: “I always say that last season was strange for Yaya. He started the season with a lot of problems after the death of his brother and afterwards problems with his agent.

“I think that he was not focused on what he wanted to do last year. Now, I am sure we are going to see the same Yaya that we saw two seasons ago.”

The one ray of light for West Brom was the announcement that the club had secured the services of Venezuela striker Salomon Rondon for a club-record £12m. 

“We’ve watched him and he comes highly recommended from Manuel, who had him at Malaga, and Andre (Villas-Boas), who had him at Zenit,” said Pulis. “We just hope at 25 years of age he’s a really good investment for the club.”