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It was an FA Cup third round thrashing that West Ham United took Friday evening, as Manchester City thumped their London foes 5-0 at the Olympic Stadium.
It was the top contest of the round, the first in which all 20 Premier League teams join the storied competition, and it turned out not to be storied night at all for Slaven Bilic’s side. After a very entertaining opening half-hour of play in which both teams had bright moments, Pep Guardiola’s treble contenders asserted their class for a clear win.
Angelo Ogbonna’s latest clumsy challenge on a box crashing Pablo Zabaleta lead to Yaya Toure scoring from the spot in the 33rd minute to give Man City the 1-0 edge. The Irons had a chance to equalize, but Sofiane Feghouli provided one of the misses of the season when he failed to tap in the rebound to Michail Antonio’s good shot that was parred into the Algerian’s path by Willy Caballero. The game was then decided with a two goal barrage in as many minutes from the visitors.
A fine, double digit passing move that started from the back lead to Bacary Sagna crossing into the box, where Havard Nordtveit couldn’t fend off Raheem Sterling enough to prevent an own goal in the 41st minute. Less than 120 seconds later, City had secured a third, when poor communication from Ogbonna, Winston Reid and Aaron Cresswell sent Sterling, Sergio Aguero and David Silva through 3-on-1 on Nordtveit. Sterling’s pass went to Silva, as the left footed Spaniard finished easily from home to put the game out of wraps before halftime.
Guardiola’s men weren’t done with the barrage, as Aguero finished easily from a Toure stinging shot to make it a fourth in the 50th minute. John Stones provided a 5th goal with a header in the 84th minute.
With now a three game losing streak in all competitions proceeding a needed three game winning streak, West Ham will hope their new, negative run will end when they return to league play against struggling Crystal Palace. That London derby will be on Saturday, January 14th.