Manchester City seems to ruling the sky in English soccer these days where they are not only a feasible winner in the Premier League but also in the League Cup. They defeated or we should call crushed West Ham by a huge 3-0 margin in the Capital One Cup at Upton Park. Notably, they were already leading by 6-0 after the first leg and when they again crushed Sam Allardyce side, they registered an earth shattering victory that takes them to the League Cup final for the first time in last 38 years where they would either face Manchester United or Sunderland at Wembley. This is actually a record breaking win in aggregate in League Cup semi-finals and seventh in any English league thanks to City strikers Alvaro Negredo, who scored two goals, and Sergio Aguero, who scored one; they missed no opportunity to escalate their lead. With this show, Manuel Pellegrini is fast moving to become one of the most successful managers on English soil during his first season, in fact, he has said it in the beginning that they will triumph all four leagues this year. The match was one sided right from the beginning, but no one had imagined West Ham would not be able to shed off their first leg shortfall, in fact, they even surged the difference considerably.
Looking at the style and confidence level of City players, especially strikers, they are the most threatening contenders for others in English topflight. Highly energetic Pellegrini said after the match, “It was a very professional performance. It was easy to think the game was finished from the 6-0 in the first leg, but it was important to reach the final winning all the games. For Sergio Aguero, it was useful match as he played 60 minutes. Alvaro Negredo has a problem with his shoulder. He has pain at the moment and we will see if it is serious on Wednesday.”
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce similarly congratulated City and blamed their defense for such a big loss, he said, “The most disappointing thing was our defensive unit doing what it did in the first few minutes. Manchester City are a super, super team but it was not a super, super opening goal.
“It was bog-standard defending, which was disappointing. You cannot make the amount of mistakes at this level that we did. Obviously we were disappointed to lose Joe Cole and Mo Diame to injuries, but we’ll have to see how serious they are. Mo’s injury might not have been as serious as it first looked.”