Some statistics are undeniably harsh, and this was the fifteenth time in sixteen encounters that Manchester City have defeated West Ham at home. In fact, the Hammers are now without a win in nineteen games against City.
A more pressing concern for current West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui is that this marks the club’s sixth league defeat by three or more goals, a feat unmatched by any other team.
City were cruising by the 58th minute with Haaland scoring twice, Foden adding one, and a deflected own goal from Coufal via Brazilian Savinho putting them four goals up.
German international Niclas Füllkrug did pull one back for West Ham in the 71st minute, yet it was too little too late, albeit Summerville missed a chance late on.
On the positive side, West Ham managed a total of four shots on target, an improvement on their first-half performance, where they had none. City had seven on target. The visitors also had a measly one corner over the whole duration of the game and controlled just 44% possession.
Pep Guardiola will view this as progress, as it marks the first time his team have won successive games since October, although West Ham may not be the ideal benchmark for measuring success.
One Hammers fan told me after the game that they’ve become apathetic to these regular thumping’s now. Whether the West Ham board share this sentiment remains to be seen.
Under Lopetegui, West Ham now have a 31.81% win rate, with 7 wins, 5 draws, and 10 losses over 22 games (including Carabao Cup games). This places him slightly below Avram Grant, who managed 47 games with a 31.91% win rate, having won 15, drawn 12, and lost 20.
A former West Ham manager with a higher win rate and a European trophy win was in the stands to watch this. His final game at the Etihad ended in a 3-1 defeat.
There is no point speculating on the future of Lopetegui – the facts should speak for themselves. Remarkably, the Spanish head coach had a different view of the game:
“It is not easy to explain the match for me. I think we deserved more. We did very good things. We did positive things. We have to do better with finishing. It is a frustrating day.”
The most frustrating part for me is this is the most wide open Premiership in 12 years with Forest in 3rd, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Villa, Fulham & Brighton all in the top 10. We had our opportunity after huge investment by the club and Dec’s transfer fee to rebuild a team capable of challenging for European places, yet here we are languishing in 14th place only 7 points above the bottom 3.
After 5 months, still no recognisable patterns of play and continuing to select players who are simply not performing at Premiership standard. 9th time we have conceded 3 or more goals. Yet nobody bawling out Alvarez for ducking the challenge and turning his back to the ball! No mention of promoting players from the Academy in the targets given to the Manager, yet every week we see youngsters performing in supposedly the top league in the world at other clubs. Get rid of the manager. Bring Freddie Potts back and give our youngsters their opportunity. How else are we going to fire up the underperforming team if they see real competition for their places and start fighting for their starting position?
Sack the Manager
Sack Sullivan
Sack the players
Sack em all off…..
The way this club is going and killing its fanbase I can honestly see us forming a team like AFC Wimbledon did like Salford did and starting from scratch….
I’m not a J-Lo fan. But that’s very selective use of numbers. At this point in the season Moron Grant had won 3 and we were 19th on 17 points. His cup record of 8 wins in ten helped his stats, but his final EPL win percentage was less than 20% I think.
And it’s all Sullivan fault. Just get Carrick in, leave him and Tim to get on with it and sell the club you horrible man.
Well said, Pete 👍
We didn’t sack him either when we should have done. Look how that turned out.