**West Ham**held Manchester City to a second successive and damaging draw.
The Irons were firmly on the backfoot in the first half hour on home soil, but Bernardo Silva required a little luck to break the deadlock in a dominant display that lacked a lot of sharpness.
Indeed, the hosts responded brilliantly with a set-piece strike from Konstantinos Mavropanos, and from there, it was an uphill battle for the Citizens to take the lead. The visitors built up pressure at the backend of the ninety minutes, but this stalemate had massive implications at both ends of the table.
While **West Ham**moved out of the bottom three on goal difference, City took another knock to their aspirations for the Premier League crown, sitting double digits points behind league leaders Arsenal.
Story of the Match
Pep Guardiola made three changes to the **Man City**starting eleven from the ill-fated trip to the Santiago Bernabeu. **Rayan Ait-Nouri**returned to the role of left back, and Nico O’Reilly moved back into midfield. **Matheus Nunes**filled in at right back, Abdukodir Khusanov came into central defence next to Marc Guehi, and Ruben Dias dropped to the bench. Omar Marmoush featured with Erling Haaland in the frontline, so **Savinho**and Jeremy Doku also were absent from the lineup.
West Ham hoped to build upon the confidence from their progression into the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. NunoEspirito Santo**** switched to a back five for this fixture, so he introduced **Konstantinos Mavropanos**into the backline. Mateus Fernandes and Tomas Soucek sat as the two anchors in the middle of the park. Crysencio Summerville has suffered a calf injury, and Callum Wilson dropped to the bench, so **Pablo**played as part of the frontline with Valentin Castellanos and Jarrod Bowen.
When these two teams met each other in December, the Citizens controlled proceedings from start to finish in the first half, pairing possession with potency to generate a commanding lead. Although they again had more of the ball and territory in this clash, their dominance was not so decisive this time.
The defensive discipline from the hosts has improved over time under Espirito Santo. **Antoine Semenyo**had more freedom to roam from the right behind the front two, but the box was well protected by claret and blue shirts. Half an hour passed with little to no goalmouth action of note.
In the end, it would be a somewhat fortuitous moment of magic that broke the deadlock. The rebound from a long ball towards the front two allowed City to switch gears, and Marmoush slid the ball to Bernardo Silva. The captain scanned for Haaland inside the box, but he then clipped an acutely angled effort towards the target, and it floated over Mads Hermansen into the back of the net.
The Irons would not be deterred. Barely four minutes later, they earned their first corner of the contest. Bowen wound up to take the set-piece while Gianluigi Donnarumma was wrapped up in a duel with Tomas Soucek. The Italian was too focused on barging the midfielder out of the way, and he missed the trajectory of the delivery entirely. **Konstantinos Mavropanos**rose freely to head home.
City could not complain about the leveller: their ball possession had not produced the desirable dominance at the London Stadium. On the stroke of half time, they were gifted an opportunity to return to a position of advantage. Wan-Bissaka lost control of the ball, and O’Reilly fed Haaland to break into the box from the left. He squared for Semenyo, whose shot skewed wide of the mark.
Marmoush made the hosts sweat slightly with an early second half strike, but West Ham had continued to frustrate their opponents. In fact, they were now getting in the faces of the Citizens, and it would not be too much longer before Guardiola gave the instructions to introduce new players.
Just before the hour mark, O’Reilly moved to left back, Ait-Nouri came off for Rayan Cherki,, and Marmoush made way for Doku. Almost immediately, the genial creator came up the goods: Cherki carved the path through the centre of the field to find Haaland, who forced Hermansen to make a save.
Espirito Santo selected **Soungoutou Magassa**as a midfield reinforcement, and the Frenchman found himself in a critical situation to intervene from the off. Nunes was slipped through the inside right channel to crash the box, but a wrong sided tackle was well timed to take the ball from the fullback.
In this phase of pressure, the big chance finally dropped for the number nine. Doku drove at his marker, cutting the ball back to the edge of the danger zone. There stood Haaland, but he pulled his strike wide of the mark. With 20 minutes to go, City were still ten points adrift of the league leaders.
Guardiola rolled the dice again with another double substitution. Haaland had been quiet for the most part, but he remained on the field. Semenyo swapped out for Phil Foden to refresh the attacking unit, and Tijjani Reijnders replaced Bernardo as a midfield operator with a forward thinking thrust.
Doku’s drive continued to create openings. He earned a free kick that would smack the crossbar and a devilish delivery ghosted past three players without any decisive contact. But City could not score.
It seemed that West Ham would deliver a sucker punch during injury time when Hermansen hurled the ball downfield for Bowen to chase. But the forward could not connect with Adama Traore, and by the time that the play had worked its way towards his teammate, the threat had been extinguished.
There would be one final opportunity for City in the dying embers of this match. Another corner created chaos in the penalty area, and the ball dropped for Guehi. The central defender opened up his boot to try to plant the ball into the back of the net, but he blazed his effort wildly above the crossbar.
From the stands, Guardiola threw up his hands in exasperation. He knew the title race could be over.