City were camped inside the Hammers half for virtually the entire second half, with Adrian denying the likes of Yaya Toure, Navas and Aguero before producing a brilliant save to push a Nicolas Otamendi header from a De Bruyne corner over his own bar on 85 minutes.
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These are their first dropped points and first goals allowed of the season.
He said: “We never believed that because we won five games we were the champions of the Premier League”.
“They created some chances and in the second half they were fighting like a unit from the goalkeeper to the last man”. Aguero picked up a knee injury in last week’s game against Palace.
Ahead of the fixture, Manuel Pellegrini was understandably hoping for an inspired display from his players, having suffered a frustrating defeat in their opening UEFA Champions League fixture of the new season, a 2-1 loss at the hands of Serie A giants Juventus. So we conceded twice against Juventus.
“Obviously we didn’t start well with the two goals against us but they were almost the only two chances they got”. And today, exactly the same.
Manchester City should stroll past West Ham in this one, but without humiliating them.
“I don’t want to have the excuse of Silva for why we didn’t win, David has a kick in his calf – he tried in the warm up but he felt his muscle was stiff so he didn’t play”.
The 30-year-old was linked with a move to Qatar or China during the summer, but McClaren, who is still looking for a first League win as Magpies’ boss, says the former Metz and Freiburg player remains a big part of his plans.
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic is full of praise for his Nigerian charge Victor Moses.
Bilic said: “It is a surprise, let’s be honest”.
West Ham have now incredibly won away fixtures against City, Arsenal and Liverpool this season. “I think you need to do that if you play against teams like West Ham who are defending with nine men”.
“This will do our confidence good but there is a tiny line between confidence and arrogance or between confidence and a little bit of laziness”. We knew the key would be to be able to keep the ball, because they would throw it at us. We know there are going to be ups and downs-we’re not Real Madrid-but it is looking very good now.
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“We’ve got talented players out there, but we didn’t do the basics well enough”, said McClaren, whose side take on Watford at St James’s Park on Saturday.
