Pellegrini pushes positives

MAN CITY 2 WEST HAM 0: Sergio Aguero moved to the top of the Premier League goalscoring table, a sad reminder of what a poor job Manuel Pellegrini has performed in trying to keep Manchester City in first place in the real thing.

It was an important victory in that, barring a late, remarkable surge from Liverpool, defeats for Southampton and Manchester United on Saturday leave City overwhelming favourites to clinch fourth place and avoid the unthinkable financial calamity of missing out on next season’s Champions League.

But, as Aguero followed James Collins’ Keystone Cops own-goal by claiming his 20th goal of the campaign, the low-key victory over a side with one win of their own in 12 games was hardly the sort of performance that is guaranteed to keep Pellegrini in a job beyond this summer.

Statistics can always be manipulated to tell any story, and Aguero’s goal was his first in open play at the Etihad Stadium since November 2, a drought that has contributed to City’s failed title defence.

“We’re not depending on what Manchester United or anyone else did yesterday,” said Pellegrini. “It was very important for our team to win because we are coming off two defeats in a row and always when it’s a derby defeat, it’s worse.

“It was very important to try and be a consistent team and today we played for the first 65 minutes, until the injury to David Silva, as a consistent team. We have played some minutes in other games but today we played the whole game.”

The only negative aspect of a return to winning ways came via that injury to Silva, who was stretchered off in the 75th minute after being caught by Cheikhou Kouyate’s elbow, who was booked for the incident.

“It looks serious but we must wait,” said Pellegrini. “He is in hospital now having checks on his cheekbone to see what happened with him.

“I always think that a player doesn’t want to make damage to another player and the referee was so near and decided it was unintentional. I always think these things are unintentional. I don’t think a player wants to cause more damage to another player.”

There seemed little danger of City failing to improve upon their run of just four wins from their previous dozen league games even before the Collins’ calamity gifted them the lead.

Half a dozen half-chances had come and gone by the time, in the 18th minute, Jesus Navas sprinted down the right on the counter-attack and crossed towards the far post only for Collins to sprint back and intercept with a looping touch that carried over keeper Adrian and in off the crossbar.

West Ham responded half-heartedly with Joe Hart sprinting off his line to smother Carlton Cole and diving comfortably to gather Enner Valencia’s 20-yard shot before the home team doubled their lead on 36 minutes after Yaya Toure intercepted a Stewart Downing pass deep in the City half.

Toure sent Aguero racing away before the Argentinian fed Navas out on the right, receiving the return pass in his stride and sweeping home an unstoppable finish.

The first half subsequently concluded with a flowing City move and an Aleksandar Kolarov cross which Collins scrambled clear, and the second opened with Carl Jenkinson making a brave block to prevent Aguero scoring again.

Toure flashed two late shots over the West Ham goal and there was a late response from the visitors as Valencia’s tricky run ended with a cross with which Kevin Nolan almost connected and then Nolan latched onto Martin Demichelis’ under-hit back pass but lost his one-on-one confrontation with Hart.

“The most disappointing thing in all of today was the two goals we gifted City,” said Hammers manager Sam Allardyce. “Then when we created two chances as good as the ones that Enner Valencia and Kevin Nolan got at the end, you’ve got to convert them if you’re going to get anything from this game.”

While angry with his defenders, Allardyce was also infuriated by a late incident in which Eliaquim Mangala took a swipe at West Ham winger Downing who remained on his feet but saw the ball run out of play. “Everybody goes on about simulation and cheating,” said Allardyce who berated the fourth official after the incident. “But Mangala tried to clean out Downing who stayed on his feet and, because of that, the ball runs out and we lose possession. The assistant is one yard away but didn’t give it so what am I going to say to Stewart? Dive on the floor, get him booked and get us a free-kick?”

MAN CITY (4-2-3-1): Hart 7; Zabaleta 7, Demichelis 6, Mangala 7, Kolarov 7; Fernando 6, Toure 7; Navas 9, Lampard 6 (Fernandinho 87), Silva 7 (Nasri 75, 6); Aguero 8 (Dzeko 90).

WEST HAM (4-5-1): Adrian 6; Jenkinson 5, Collins 5, Reid 6, Cresswell 6; Downing 5, Noble 5, Song 6 (Jarvic 65, 6), Kouyate 5, Valencia 7; Cole 5 (Nolan 65, 4).

Referee: A Taylor 6