Our 3️⃣ points as Man City make it 20 not out | OneFootball

Manchester City made it 20 wins in a row after beating West Ham United 2-1 at the Etihad on Saturday afternoon.

Ruben Días opened the scoring with his first goal for the club before Michail Antonio equalised but John Stones was on hand to score the winner in the second half.

Here are our main takeaways from the game …

Defenders centre of attention

20 wins in a row. This Manchester City team are relentless.

They had to work for it today and were given a hard task by David Moyes’ side but they are now 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League after picking up the three points this afternoon.

City have won every game they’ve played in since the 1-1 draw with West Brom since December 15 and it was only today where any opponent has looked like even laying a glove on them.

They keep finding new ways to win and the sign of an incredible team is how often it seems that a new individual or pairing seems to be a star of the show each work.

İlkay Gündoğan has been the main man in recent weeks, João Cancelo was incredible against Arsenal but this week John Stones and Rúben Dias stepped up to play the heroes.

The new centre-back pairing have now scored more goals (five) in the 16 games they’ve started together than they have conceded which is phenomenal.

The title is inevitable. Both domestic cups are in reach. The Champions League might finally be within their grasp.

Yesterday’s man

Pep Guardiola made seven changes for this afternoon’s meeting with West Ham but could still call upon the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Agüero.

It was the latter’s first start since October 2020 and it may be a while before he gets another based on his 60 minute showing today.

The Argentine has had to recover from a number of knocks and scrapes this season so it should be no surprise that he looked rusty, off the pace and struggled to get into the game.

But his individual performance this afternoon and the team’s overall form in recent months does beg the question whether this version of Manchester City have arguably moved on from possibly their greatest ever player.

Guardiola has come across a magic formula of midfielders and wingers operating as strikers on this relentless 20 match winning run and although Agüero is still one of the best finishers in the business, he is a different entity entirely and perhaps this team doesn’t need an ‘Agüero-type’ striker to perform to it’s maximum capability.

The 32-year-old is certainly not a bad option to have back around the squad but has the horse bolted from the cart on his Manchester City career?

The Irons bloody a few noses

Manchester City have extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to 13 points but this is the first time in a long while that they have looked … beatable.

The Hammers caused the champions-elect serious problems on Saturday afternoon by remaining disciplined behind the ball and attempting to spring counter-attacks whenever they got hold of it.

This is hardly a unique approach to tackling this City team but the difference was that West Ham looked to get in behind and hurt the hosts whenever they could.

Jesse Lingard wasa nuisance throughout the 90 minutes, Michail Antonio held the ball up consistently and that double-pivot of Declan Rice and Tomáš Souček is one of the strongest in the league.

If West Ham aren’t too downhearted from this defeat, and they shouldn’t be, then their unlikely pursuit for Champions League qualification is more than achievable.

David Moyes came up with a plan that made Man City look vulnerable this afternoon, and even though the league leaders came through in the end – it should give their next opponents some food for thought.