Manchester City suffered another blow in their Premier League title challenge as they were held to a 1-1 draw by West Ham United.
The Citizens will have been gutted going into their game, after Arsenal scored two very late goals to beat Everton — extending their lead at the top of the table to 10 points.
Pep Guardiola’s side took the lead just after the half-hour mark through Bernardo Silva, with a bit of good fortune. But that lead only lasted four minutes before Konstantinos Mavropanos equalised from a corner.
And Man City could not break down a stubborn West Ham defence, leaving them nine points behind Arsenal even with a game in hand.
In this article, we’ll cover:
West Ham’s excellent defending
It may sound weird to call a defence that faced 25 shots excellent. But West Ham were brilliant at the back. Although Man City did have 25 shots, they only hit the target six times. The Citizens posted 2.08 Expected Goals, but almost half of that came in goalmouth scrambles from late corners. They really didn’t worry the West Ham defence.
On top of scoring the equaliser, Konstantinos Mavropanos played as if his job depended on it. He threw himself at everything, blocking four shots, more than the rest of his teammates combined. The Greek centre-back also made 10 clearances and four interceptions, and won five duels.
He wasn’t alone, though. Tomas Soucek often dropped deep alongside the three centre-backs and chipped in with seven clearances and seven tackles. Jean-Clair Todibo made three tackles, three interceptions, four clearances and won possession six times.
And when Man City did manage to get past the defence, Mads Hermsansen made five saves and was in excellent form. West Ham fans may have left the London Stadium without any nails, but they can definitely look back with pride on how their team defended. They deserved the point they got, even if they scored with their only shot of the match.
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Missing connection in attack
If this were FIFA 22, Man City’s lineup would be excellent. We’re talking Ultimate Team, using position modifiers to make Kylian Mbappe a CDM just to fit an extra attacker into your team, while keeping maximum chemistry.
But this is real-life football. And Guardiola’s attempts to field as many goal-focused forward as possible isn’t working. In fact, it’s working against them. Mainly because it’s seen Erling Haaland pushed even more to the periphery if matches.
Antoine Semenyo and Omar Marmoush both want to impress. And they ideally want to do it centrally. So when they have the ball, getting it to Haaland isn’t the first thought. It’s how they can get up the pitch themselves into scoring positions.
During his 60 minutes on the pitch, Marmoush failed to make a single pass to Haaland, while Semenyo passed to the Norwegian just once in 74 minutes.
Just moments after Marmoush was taken off for Rayan Cherki, the Frenchman set up Haaland for his first shot on target.
It isn’t just a problem with Semenyo and Marmoush, though. Haaland was constantly making runs and not receiving the ball, due to Man City wanting to craft the perfect goal. The likes of Bernardo Silva and Nico O’Reilly — in Man City’s weird midfield — often took too long on the ball, keeping needless possession. Let’s not forget that Haaland is the fifth-top scorer at the London Stadium since the start of the 2022-23 season. That’s including West Ham players.
Haaland ended the game with four shots and 0.43 xG, but only one of those hit the target. That’s despite having eight touches in the opposition box — more than the entire West Ham team combined.
Man City’s lack of gamechangers
Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Everton earlier on Saturday was secured by their substitutes. Both Viktor Gyokeres and Max Dowman came off the bench to score late on. They were the 10th and 11th goals Arsenal have scored via substitutes in the Premier League this season. That’s the most of any Premier League club.
By contrast, Man City have only had one goal scored by a substitute this season. That’s the worst in the Premier League. Cherki was the man to get that goal off the bench, in the very first game of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Cherki is also the only Man City player to assist in a Premier League game after coming off the bench this season. Only Everton have failed to have a player record an assist as a substitute.
He was one of the four players brought off the bench to try to win the game at the London Stadium. And it’s not like Man City were bringing on other players who can’t influence matches. Tijjani Reijnders, Jeremy Doku and Phil Foden were also brought on.
Cherki, Reijnders and Doku all had shots after coming on but they were low-level chances. The trio also all created chances, including a good one from Cherki for Haaland. But, again, the crucial impact was missing.