MANCHESTER CITY ran out comfortable winners of this top of the table clash, after dominating possession for long periods at the London Stadium on Saturday.

The busiest player on the pitch was West Ham keeper, Alphonse Areola, who pulled off a string of incredible saves.

The pick probably being three in one sequence, split by Tomas Soucek heading off the line. Rodri, Erling Haaland and Ruben Dias all tried but were denied.

Areola then pushed aside another long-range effort from the ever dangerous Rodri.

West Ham only appeared as an attacking force after half an hour, with James Ward-Prowse having his shot saved by Ederson, following a lay off from Emerson.

A minute later, though, Ward-Prowse was on hand to stoop to head home a Vladimir Coufal cross from the right to put West Ham into an unlikely lead.

Haaland was then denied on the line by Nayef Aguerd.

After the backs to the wall effort of the first half, West Ham were caught knapping in the first minute of the second, Jeremy Doku cutting inside Coufal to rifle into the right hand corner of the net.

Areola then pushed out a goal bound header from Phil Foden.
The impressive Julian Alvarez saw his 25-yard free kick bounce back off a post.

Haaland must have thought it was not going to be his day, when, six-feet out, he caught a Rodri through ball on the volley, only to see his effort turned aside at point blank range by Areola.

West Ham then had a good chance when Luis Paqueta put Antonio away but he failed to control the ball, allowing Ederson to intercept.

Ederson then pulled of a crucial save, down to his left, from a powerful header by Kurt Zouma.

Areola pushed another shot wide from Josko Gvardiol.

Finally, though, the keeper was defeated, when an Alvarez lob was collected in the area by Bernardo Silva, who poked the ball over Areola.

Areola once again denied Haaland but the big Norwegian finally got his revenge, sweeping home a cross from Silva.

West Ham manager, David Moyes, was pleased at the effort put in by his team but felt they needed to be more clinical.

“Their first goal came at a bad time and we should have dealt with the second much better,” said Moyes, who paid tribute to Ward-Prowse and Edison Alvarez. “They have done terrifically well for us,” said Moyes.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was pleased with the battling qualities shown by his team. “We played really, really good,” said Guardiola.