Manchester City have produced one of their best performances of the season in thrashing West Ham United 4-0 in their Premier League clash at the London Stadium.
Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Gabriel Jesus and Yaya Toure all got on the scoresheet as Pep Guardiola's team moved to within one point of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur.
At the start of the year, City ran out 5-0 winners against West Ham in the FA Cup but the home side did enough in the first 10 minutes to suggest that things would be much closer this time around.
However, despite Michail Antonio looking a constant threat, his side soon fell behind after a mistake from Aaron Cresswell allowed De Bruyne to run at the West Ham defence and after receiving the ball back off Jesus, he fired into the bottom corner.
Four minutes later, City doubled their lead through Silva, who was able to score from close range after Leroy Sane had done brilliantly to beat both Sam Byram and Jose Fonte before crossing for the Spaniard.
The visitors should have added a third through Raheem Sterling, who headed wide from eight yards, before up the other end, Cresswell squandered an opportunity to halve the deficit when firing over after running onto Andy Carroll's pass.
Just before half time, City effectively put the game beyond the reach of their opponents when an error from Pedro Obiang gave Silva the chance to play in Sterling, who provided a first-time pass for Jesus to find the bottom corner from six yards out for his first goal in English football.
After the restart, West Ham needed to change something but that did not materialise in terms of both personnel or tactics and it seemed only a matter of time before City netted a fourth.
Chances were few and far between during the opening 20 minutes of the second half but City did extend their advantage through Toure, who converted from the penalty spot after Sterling had been fouled by Fonte.
With the game over as a contest, the closing stages were played at a pedestrian pace and although Robert Snodgrass impressed after coming off the bench, he was not able to contribute a consolation goal for his new side as City comfortably held on for a rare clean sheet.
Darren Plant
