City's title hopes hit after Hammers blow

The Blues looked to be on our way to three points when Bernardo opened the scoring just past the half-hour.

But the Hammers levelled shortly after and then defended resolutely throughout the second-half to hold on and claim a valuable point in their battle against relegation.

With Arsenal beating Everton earlier in the day, it leaves City nine points adrift with a game in hand over the Gunners.

The game in 250 words

City started in confident style, dominating possession without testing West Ham keeper Mads Hermansen.

The home side defended deep with every man behind the ball to frustrate the Blues and try and counter when the opportunity arose.

It was a frustrating watch until the 31st minute when Bernardo received the ball on the left of the box before dinking a shot/cross over the goalkeeper and into the net to make it 1-0.

But there was less than four minutes to enjoy that lead before City conceded a disappointing equaliser.

A straightforward corner by Jarrod Bowen found the head Konstantinos Mavropanos who, unchallenged, nodded the ball in off the underside of the crossbar and over the line.

City brought on Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku on the hour-mark and Cherki immediately fed Erling Haaland who saw a low shot just tipped around the post by Hermansen.

The Blues continued to dominate without really creating any clearcut chances until Tijjani Reijnders saw a free-kick tipped onto the crossbar by Hermansen on 83 minutes.

Haaland again went close again on 88 but failed to connect clearly and Marc Guéhi blazed over from close range with what proved to be our final chance of the game.

The stats don’t lie and with 24 shots to West Ham’s one - which resulted in a goal - it was just our finishing and a fine goalkeeper display that prevented a deserved victory for Guardiola’s men.

The draw leaves City with a sizeable challenge to catch the Gunners in the weeks that remain, though not an insurmountable one and one we are capable of achieving.

TEAMS

West Ham United:  Hermansen, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Disasi, Todibo, Diouf, Soucek, Fernandes, Bowen (Kante 90+6), Pablo (Magassa 64), Taty (Traore 75)

Subs: Areola, Walker-Peters, Kilman, Wilson, Potts, Mayers

CITY:  Donnarumma, Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, Ait-Nouri (Doku 60), Rodrigo, Bernardo (Reijnders 75), O’Reilly, Marmoush (Cherki 60) , Semenyo (Foden 75), Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Dias, Ake, Kovacic, Nico

blues will keep going

If any team knows about never giving up, it is Manchester City.

The odds are stacked against the Blues, but with a game in hand and a home game against the Gunners still to come, that gap could be cut to three points.

City will believe anything is possible, but we can ill-afford anymore dropped points in the games that remain.

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What it means...

City remain second in the Premier League, but Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Everton means we are now nine points adrift of the Gunners.

The Blues have a game in hand on Mikel Arteta’s side and still have to play Arsenal at the Etihad next month.

What’s next?

City face a pivotal week in the Champions League and the Carabao Cup.

The Blues host Real Madrid on Tuesday, 17 March in the Round of 16 second leg.

We trail the Spaniards 3-0 from the first leg and the game kicks off at 20:00 (UK).

Then it’s off to Wembley to face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final.

The showpiece clash with the Gunners is on Sunday 22 March and will kick-off at 16:30 (UK).

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