Negredo grabs treble as Manchester City hit Hammers for six

Manchester City 6 West Ham United 0

Edin Dzeko grabbed two and Yaya Toure also got on the scoresheet as City all but booked a trip to Wembley by piling on the misery for the Hammers and their under-fire manager Sam Allardyce.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini was delighted to be as good as clinch a place in next month’s final at Wembley.

“Today was an important result to play at Wembley,” he said. “In football it is never finished until the end but today we have one leg in the final.

“The most important thing was not to score the six goals, it is the way the team must play. It is good to score goals but it is very important not to concede goals. If we keep playing this way the goals will come.”

City’s dominance was such that Dzeko even lost track of the score.

“It’s not easy to win 5-0 at home against another Premier League team,” he said.

“We still have to play away and this 5-0 — or 6-0, in the end — will give us the confidence.”

City needed just 12 minutes to take the lead at the Etihad Stadium and the Londoners were simply swept aside in an embarrassingly one-sided match.

Allardyce, who was taunted by visiting fans late in the game, had prioritised the game to some extent by fielding a weakened side against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round last weekend.

But that backfired as they were thrashed by six goals and despite eight changes, including the return of senior players such as Mark Noble, Joe Cole, Guy Demel and Mohamed Diame, it proved a similar story in the Manchester rain.

It was also a particularly chastening debut for Roger Johnson, who looked well off the pace after arriving on loan from Wolves to bolster the defence this week.

With cup football now effectively over, this weekend’s trip to Cardiff in the Premier League is taking on crucial importance for Allardyce.

For City, it was another irresistible display to add to a growing catalogue that has already seen them put six past Arsenal and Tottenham and score seven against Norwich this season.

MAN CITY: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, Toure (Demichelis 66), Javi Garcia, Nasri, Silva (Lopes 73), Dzeko, Negredo (Kolarov 79).

WEST HAM: Adrian, Demel, Johnson, McCartney, O’Brien (Rat 75), Noble (Diarra 57), Diame, Taylor, Downing, Maiga (Carlton Cole 46), Joe Cole.

Referee: Jon Moss (W Yorkshire).