Hammers ruin City’s proud run

MANCHESTER City were left to rue their luck after suffering their first setback of the season at the hands of West Ham.

The Barclays Premier League leaders lost their 100 per cent record as they were beaten 2–1 by the Hammers at the Etihad Stadium.

City rallied strongly – after Kevin de Bruyne replied to early strikes from Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho with his first goal for the club – but were unable to turn the game around.

Manuel Pellegrini’s expensively–assembled side created a series of chances in the second half, but West Ham wouldn’t yield.

It was another notable away scalp for the London side under their new boss Slaven Bilic having already won at Arsenal and Liverpool. They now have 12 points from six games, just three behind City.

“I don’t think we played a bad game,” said De Bruyne, who had been making his first start for City since his £54m club record move from Wolfsburg last month.

“Obviously we didn’t start well with the two goals against us, but they were almost the only two chances they got. With the goal we scored before half–time everybody had the feeling we could change the game. In the second half we put a lot of pressure on West Ham but we didn’t find the net.”