West Ham Hands Manchester City Their First Defeat Of The Season In An Away Victory

 

Manchester City's immaculate start to the 2015-16 Premier League season came to an end against West Ham United, who continued their impressive run on the road with a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.

Goals from Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho gave the Hammers an early lead, but City new boy Kevin de Bruyne struck in first-half stoppage time to set up a tense second period.

As expected, the Citizens had their opponents pegged back for much of the game's latter stages but West Ham, who'd won their previous away fixtures at Arsenal and Liverpool, survived to move within three points of Manuel Pellegrini's men.

With less than six minutes on the clock, Moses lashed the visitors in front from 20 yards, after being invited to do so by City defender Eliaquim Mangala.

It was the first goal the Premier League leaders, whose captain Vincent Kompany was ruled out through injury, had conceded domestically all season, and shortly after the half hour mark they shipped another.

Winston Reid's header from a corner was bundled back across goal by Pedro Obiang and Sakho didn't hesitate to stick the ball inside Joe Hart's far post.

West Ham were not at all flattered by the scoreline and had appeared comfortable until City reduced the deficit out of nowhere on the stroke of half-time.

A pass from Sergio Aguero allowed De Bruyne to make space outside the box, and the £54m man duly lashed the ball across the turf and beyond the outstretched Adrian.

Predictably, the hosts were dominant after the restart, with Yaya Toure frequently engaging Reid in a battle of attack versus defence.

The former twice dragged shots narrowly wide of Adrian's far post and Nicolas Otamendi had a late header tipped over by the same player, but City failed to break down their resolute opponents.