Premier League match report: Manchester City 3-0 West Brom
This game was decided after less than 90 seconds when the referee got confused by which one of West Brom’s identical defenders was the culprit and after that Tony Pulis’ team spent 90 minutes of being the victim.
City controlled the entire game thanks to Neil Swarbrick’s decision to send off a West Brom defender, albeit the wrong one. The goals were inevitable, but it was Wilfried Bony, Fernando and David Silva who were the ones to eventually put their name on the scoresheet.
In the first minute, Wilfried Bony charged through the West Brom defence, only for the Ivorian to be brought down by Craig Dawson on the edge of the area, with Gareth McAuley also in close proximity. Neil Swarbrick then decided to send off McAuley rather than Dawson, much to the bemusement to all those gave the wrong man the red card after one minute and 29 seconds to make it the fastest dismissal of the season.
With the visitors down to ten men, Manchester City dominated possession from then on. Despite keeping the ball, there were few clearcut chances for Manuel Pellegrini’s men, with the best falling to Frank Lampard after good work down the left and a pull back from David Silva, but the former England man sliced it wide from 14 yards.
Bony wouldn’t be denied in the 26 minutes. The Ivorian bagged his first goal for City after coolly controlling the ball in the area after a touch of pinball in the aftermath of a Fernando shot, before calmly slotting the ball past a helpless Boaz Myhill.
City were enjoying the freedom of the extra man; Navas roamed from the right wing into the centre, wherehe was found by Aguero – the Spaniard spun on the spot and curled a shot heading for the top corner, only for Myhill to fly through the air and palm it wide.
After a long time toying with the West Brom back four, City eventually netted a second thanks to a poor clearance from Jonas Olsson, Fernando reacted fastest to place the ball into an empty net. It had been coming, as the Baggies hadn’t been able to get out of their half all game. It was also the club’s 1000th goal in Premier League, meaning the Brazilian will now go don in history.
After the break nothing changed, as City continued to dominate. There were plenty of chances, but Myhill was equal to a lot of what was thrown at him. After 55 minutes the goalkeeper made two saves in quick succession. Firstly, he got down smartly to parry a Silva drive and soon after he blocked Aguero trying steer the ball home from only a few yards out.
In the 58th minute City hit the woodwork twice, as West Brom rode their luck. An Aguero strike across goal from inside the area bounced out of the post into the path of Bony, but his shot bobbled off the ground and struck the bar.
The closest West Brom came to getting back into the game was in the 73rd minute when the thankless Saido Berahino headed a corner onto the bar from two yards out and Joleon Lescott nodded the rebound over to compound a miserable day for the visitors.
There was never any doubt about the outcome, but City ensured there was no way back into it for West Brom when Silva turn a Stevan Jovetic shot into the goal with his shin, something Shaun Goater would have been proud of.
Pellegrini would have learned very little about his side in this win, but will be pleased to see them back on track, and Pulis will just be pleased the referee remembered to blow the full-time whistle.