City 2 - 0 West Ham: What Did We Learn?

It was a job done by City today, as they dispatched West Ham United by a score of 2-0. It was a nice and necessary rebound from last Sunday's loss to the red team, and ensured that City's lead for the fourth spot in the table will be no fewer than four points after Liverpool makes up its game in hand. Now, onto the lessons gleaned from today's match.

1. City can lead a match at the half

For the first time since the year 2014, Manchester City led a Premier League match at halftime. That sounds unbelievable given that it is late April, but it's true. It was refreshing to see them take a chance in the first half and not let the Hammers go into the second half with any real hope of coming away with anything in this contest, even if they were helped out immensely by a fluke own goal to open the scoring.

2. City still can't score by themselves

Other than that bonkers own goal from James Collins, a goal of the season candidate if he'd scored in the correct goal, City only managed one goal despite having two thirds of the possession and firing 18 shots. West Ham were able to execute the now common strategy of putting a ton of players behind the ball and letting City fruitlessly pass it around the outside of the penalty area without being able to score.

In fact, both of City's goals came from the break, the only times that West Ham weren't able to get men back in numbers defensively. While City deserve credit for getting all three points in a must win game, it's ultimately concerning that a team which has struggled to score for months now continued to struggle today on the offensive end.

3. David Silva had better be okay

After taking an elbow from Cheikhou Kouyate to the face, David Silva went down for a while, long enough to warrant nine minutes of second half stoppage time. But, while having to play nearly ten extra minutes was an inconvenience, not having a player as influential as Silva at 100% for any period of time would absolutely hurt City for the remainder of this season.

Overall, job done for City today. Your takeaways from the match below.