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Jacob Steinberg was at the London Stadium tonight. Here’s his verdict. Thanks for reading this MBM.
Nuno Espírito Santo speaks to TNT Sports. “We feel OK … we knew it was very hard … a very tough match … defensively heroic … we put our bodies on the line … huge, huge … we have talented players … we achieved something really important for us … the fans go out of the stadium proud to see their players suffering and doing everything they can … we were positive in the set piece and achieved a beautiful goal … we know a remote farm in Lincolnshire, where Mrs Buckley lives, and every July, peas grow there … recently we have the belief that we can compete well … we prepare the next match in a nice mood, which is very helpful for us.”
More from Pep, and he’s enjoying himself tonight. “We are an incredible team … we played so good … we did not score enough goals [this season] when we had enough quality to score … except two games, United away and Arsenal away, we have been better … unfortunately [this season] we have not scored enough goals.”
As for being in the stand: “I love to be there … I will complain to more referee’s to get more yellow cards! … next time it will be three games! … I will try it again! … it is different … more relaxed.”
On talking a lot to Pep Lijnders on the phone: “Yes. We charged the battery before.”
And more on the title race: “We have one game in hand … a game at home … everything is done for everyone … we have to try it until the end … when it is not possible we will congratulate the champion … but we have to try it!”
SharePep: It’s not over
My mistake: Pep Guardiola is indeed allowed to talk tonight! And here he is on TNT Sports. And honestly, coming to think about it now, should we have expected anything other than this …?
double quotation markJULES BREACH: Pep, you said that if you drop points in this game, that this title race is over. Is it?
PEP [wide-eyed, with exaggerated surprise]: Who said?!
JULES: You said that yesterday!
PEP: No. It’s not over. [cheeky smile, shakes head, theatrical beat, leans in, whispers almost conspiratorially] But we didn’t lose! [huge teeth-bearing grin] No, it is not over! We continue! We have an incredible team!
Updated at 18.29 EDT
The top and bottom of the Premier League tables haven’t changed since we published them at the break. But they’re worth another look if you’re a West Ham fan. And an Arsenal supporter. City fans meanwhile can console themselves that it’s not all over quite yet – win their game in hand, and beat Arsenal at the Etihad, and the Gunners may get nervous as the finishing tape heaves into view – but it’ll be interesting to see if Pep Guardiola calls it for the leaders, given his “If we drop points it will be over” claim of the other day. But he’s on the naughty step tonight, so his updated take on events will have to wait. Mikel Arteta’s men hot favourites now, that much we know. As for the relegation battle: over to Forest and Spurs tomorrow, against Fulham and Liverpool respectively. At least that run-in is likely to go down to the wire.
Hammers captain Jarrod Bowen speaks to TNT. “It feels good … when you can’t win, get something … a couple of little breaks here and there … when you’re against City, you’re going to have to be perfect without the ball … we have to [believe] … we have to keep raising it every single day … every day is an opportunity to get points … we’re in a good place … we can enjoy the weekend and get ready to go to Aston Villa next weekend … if we pick up points, we don’t need to worry about anyone else.”
Mads Hermansen, who played a blinder in goal for the Irons, adds: “It was nice [to make some saves] … we were strong … they didn’t break through us too many times … I think we can be happy with our performance!”
At roughly 7.20pm this evening, Arsenal were sleepwalking towards a dispiriting draw at home to Everton. Then Max Dowman happened. And now, just over two and a half hours later, it’s Manchester City who have dropped two precious points in the title race! City took 25 shots to West Ham’s one. Their xG was 2.07 to West Ham’s 0.54. They enjoyed 71 percent of possession. And yet it can’t be argued that West Ham richly deserve their point. They defended staunchly all evening. Rode their luck on a couple of occasions too, but then did Bernardo Silva really mean that goal?! So it’s swings and roundabouts. City were strangely blunt where they used to have a cutting edge – Erling Haaland is strangely out of sorts right now – and they only got six of those 25 efforts on target. West Ham: one shot, one goal, one precious point in their battle to stay up. A huge result at both ends of the table all right.
ShareFULL TIME: West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City
West Ham are out of the relegation zone! City fall nine points behind Arsenal! A huge result at both ends of the table!
Down and out in the East End. Photograph: Dave Shopland/APShare
Updated at 17.59 EDT
90 min +7: Foden crosses from the right. Hermansen plucks from the sky. That’s surely it now?
90 min +5: Kante replaces Bowen. The clock runs on past the allotted time due to the Mavropanos injury.
90 min +4: O’Reilly wins a corner down the left. It’s swung into the mixer. West Ham don’t deal with it. The ball drops to Guehi, who surely must score, six yards out … but leans back and shanks over the crossbar! The ball sails into the night sky. Does it take City’s title dreams with it?
90 min +3: … but he’s not replaced. He comes back on, just after Bowen had taken the ball all the way to the edge of the City box. The clock ticks on!
90 min +2: Rodri initially wasn’t happy with the referee, but soon realised Mavropanos took an almighty whack on the noggin. He’s happily fine to get up and walk off, after some medical checks.
90 min +1: The ball drops to Haaland on the edge of the West Ham box. Haaland shapes like Zinedine Zidane in the 2002 Champions League final, swivelling to batter a shot goalwards. He smashes the ball straight at Mavropanos, who catches it straight in the mush. Right on his temple. Mavropanos goes down. The referee stops play immediately, as he should.
OOF. That’s gotta hurt. Glad he’s fine. Photograph: Dave Shopland/APShare
Updated at 17.55 EDT
90 min: Reijnders swings the corner in. Rodri wins a header. O’Reilly flicks it on, six yards out. Any power, and it’s surely in. But there’s next to no power! And it’s straight at Hermansen, on the line! There will be four added minutes.
89 min: Fernandes is booked for a late challenge on Cherki, who was advancing down the right. Cherki will take the free kick himself. He floats it long. It skims off Mavropanos’s head. Corner to come in from the left.
88 min: Doku tears past Wan-Bissaka on the left and crosses low. Foden air-kicks, then Haaland chunks a shot straight to Hermansen, who smothers with glee. As close as City have come to forcing a winner, Doku besting his opponent for the first time since coming on.
87 min: Foden dribbles elegantly down the middle. As he prepares to shoot on the edge of the D, Fernandes arrives from nowhere to slide-tackle the ball away. What a challenge!
86 min: Bowen wins a pressure-releasing free kick, O’Reilly punished for a loose touch, and that’s greeted with a huge roar. West Ham hit the set piece long, and Rodri and Donnarumma very nearly confuse each other, getting too close on the edge of the box. But with Traore sniffing around, disaster is averted. The keeper claims.
84 min: Cherki is upended near the left-hand corner flag. A free kick. Reijnders whips it in … and it’s heading towards the top right! Hermansen tips onto the junction of crossbar and post and away! West Ham deal with the corner.
82 min: Doku drives down the left but Wan-Bissaka doesn’t give an inch. No way into the box. The West Ham defender is forced into the concession of corner number 12 for City, though. But nothing comes of it. This is a really impressive defensive display from West Ham. Whatever happens tonight, they don’t look like a relegation team at all.
80 min: A cross in from the right that Haaland can’t get anywhere near. Goal kick. The home fans are tense. So they crack the thickening atmosphere with a chorus of Bubbles. But their heroes can’t get out. Their heroes are holding their shape, though, and holding firm.
78 min: Cherki earns City a corner down the left. The set piece is headed clear by Mavropanos … but only to Cherki, who chests down, 12 yards out, just to the right of goal, and pearls a shot towards the bottom right. Hermansen uses safe hands to gather. That’s a fine block.
77 min: Rodri looks to burst into space down the middle, Magassa having taken a heavy touch. Magassa makes up by taking one for the team, telescoping a leg to bring Rodri down. Into the book he goes. Any cynic worth their salt will tell you he had to: City were breaking upfield, a man to the good.
75 min: … meanwhile Pep Guardiola has quite literally rung the changes. Semenyo and Silva are replaced by Foden and Reijnders. A reprieve for Haaland.
74 min: Another West Ham change as Traore replaces Castellanos.
73 min: Guardiola is still on the phone. Time to send on Foden? With nothing to lose, it’s hard to choose.
71 min: Bowen embarks on a brave, bustling run that sees off three men. But he’s started it deep in his own half, and there’s nobody up ahead to help him. Eventually he’s crowded out. He can’t do it all himself. But West Ham are digging in for a point, so it’s needs must.
70 min: Doku stands up Wan-Bissaka on the left. He chops back and rolls towards Haaland on the penalty spot. It’s a good chance, but the out-of-sorts star pull-scuffs his shot wide right. Most of the stadium waiting for the net to bulge. Haaland looks pained. Guardiola was reportedly about to hook him before the chance on 62 mins, then changed his mind. He might be about to change it again.
Pained Erling Haaland. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 17.31 EDT
68 min: Rodri shovels a clever first-time pass down the inside-right channel to release Silva into the box. Silva’s heavy touch means he can’t get a shot away. Mavropanos slides across to block, just in time, and nothing comes from the resulting corner.
66 min: City have taken 11 attempts on goal. Or rather at goal. Only two have been on target, according to TNT. “Castellanos’s effort wasn’t the worst rabona result I’ve ever seen,” begins Christopher Faherty, “given Hernan Crespo once tried one in Chelsea’s semi-final CL loss against Monaco and he failed with it, carried over the touchline and stacked himself so hard against the advertising hoardings I thought he could be in genuine bother for a few seconds after. Luckily he was unhurt.”
65 min: Semenyo wins a corner down the right. It’s half cleared. Rodri crosses again from the same flank. With Guehi steaming in, planning to connect with a power header, Todibo flicks clear. That’s great last-ditch defending. Doku returns the ball miles over the bar.
64 min: West Ham respond by replacing Pablo with Magassa.
63 min: City have been energised by the subs. Cherki dribble-dances down the inside-left and scuffs a shot, but gets the benefit of a deflection wide. Silva sends in the corner … but Khusanov sends a harmless header over the bar.
62 min: Cherki’s very first act is to play a cute ball down the inside-right channel for Haaland, who enters the box and aims a shot through Mavropanos’s legs and towards the bottom left. Hermansen extends his fingers to save with the very tips. One corner leads to another, which leads to nothing.
60 min: … and here it comes, Pep still in the stands yammering away on his mobile. Marmoush and Ait-Nouri are replaced by Cherki and Dokul, which is a very attack-minded roll of the dice.
59 min: City prepare a double change. The Peps clearly unhappy.
57 min: Castellanos, his confidence high, decides to make a clearance 30 yards from his own goal via the medium of a rabona. It doesn’t quite come off, but he gets away with it. Full marks for ambition, though you do wonder whether Nuno might have a Welles-style word after the game.
56 min: Castellanos romps after a speculative Bowen pass down the left. He’s going to get there first, but that’s because he was well offside when the ball was sent. Up goes the flag.
55 min: Soucek crosses from the right. Castellanos flings himself spectacularly at the ball, but misses his attempt at connecting with a diving header, eyebrowing fresh air instead. Guehi is able to clear. City counter, Semenyo advancing down the left. He tries to find Haaland with a cross, but Todibo blocks and the ball balloons into the arms of Hermansen.
53 min: City stroke it around, but it’s all happening in their own half.
51 min: Once again, Pep’s on the phone. It’s eight past nine and he’s as nervous as hell.
Updated at 17.14 EDT
49 min: Nunes tries to release Marmoush down the right. Hermansen is on point to snuff out the attack, racing miles out of his box to intercept and clear. The pass from Nunes, overhit, made the keeper’s work a tad easier than it might have otherwise been.
48 min: Silva slips Marmoush into the West Ham box from the right. Marmoush takes a touch to spin around and lash a low shot across the face of goal. Not too far wide left. Hermansen probably had it covered, though.
47 min: Bowen and Castellanos take turns to press hard down the West Ham right flank. Ait-Nouri and Khusanov hold firm, but they’re being made to work. The Hammers up for this after an impressive showing in that first half.
West Ham get the second half started. No changes. More of the same, please, everyone!
Half-time postbag. “I’m relieved to see City have found some shirts to wear. I flicked on the rugby briefly before kick-off and was astonished to see the French team seem to have decided to nick the Manchester City shirts and don them for the evening. Sacre (light) bleu!” – Nick Parish
“I remember a colour-blind caller to the Baker & Kelly 606 phone-in who had been to watch Dundee Utd play Aberdeen on a snow covered pitch. They used the trusty orange football, but as the game went on the snow started to melt away. By the second half the snow was completely gone, but unfortunately, they continued with the orange ball and the caller had to leave the game as all he could see were 22 players randomly running about the green pitch” – Ian Burch
“Nuno is just exactly the man that Arsenal West Ham need now. With Pep out of the picture for the moment, there’s space for the main character energy presence, and who better? Squint your eyes a little bit and it could be Orson Welles in one of his more reflective moods, radiating aura. All the West Ham players have to do is pick up some of that and translate it into goal-currency. It’s true that Welles ended up making adverts for sherry, but that came a lot later” – Charles Antaki
… and of course frozen peas. The lineage of the Toast-Fandango dynamic can be traced all the way back to here.ShareHALF TIME: West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City
Three minutes and 42 seconds passed between the two goals. The xG is 0.54 to 0.3 in West Ham’s favour. And to complete the stat dump, as things stand there’s a nine-point gap at the top …
… while West Ham have extricated themselves from the dropzone at Nottingham Forest’s expense. Big second 45 coming up!
You’re fired! Photograph: Richard Pelham/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 17.02 EDT
45 min +1: There will be two additional minutes. Nothing happens in the first of them.
45 min: Pep Guardiola is allowed into his team’s dressing room during the break. He’s clearly unhappy at what he’s seen, and leaves his seat in the stand early. He misses a City near miss in doing so, as Haaland bustles his way down the inside-left channel and cuts back for Semenyo, who opens his body and tries to steer a sidefoot into the bottom left. Hermansen is rooted to the spot, and he’s not getting to the ball if it’s on target. It’s an inch or so wide. So close to City regaining the lead.
43 min: Bowen goes long in the hope of releasing Castellanos down the inside-right channel, but Guehi comes across to cover, just in time. West Ham have obviously taken a look at how Real Madrid bothered City during the week, because they’re causing a lot of trouble down what we should now refer to as Valverde’s Flank.
41 min: There’s a bit of an edge developing here, as Diouf catches Nunes. The referee in danger of losing some control. He probably should have dealt with Wan-Bissaka properly.
39 min: Wan-Bissaka slides in late on Guehi, and that’s not a good challenge either. Surely worth a booking, though somehow he gets away with it.
37 min: Here’s something Silva certainly meant to do: extend a leg and catch Fernandes on the shin. Frustrated that his act of genius was cancelled out so quickly? Into the book he goes.
ShareGOAL! West Ham United 1-1 Manchester City (Mavropanos 35)
City’s lead doesn’t last too long! Bowen’s cross from the right is turned behind for a corner. Bowen takes the corner himself, sending it long. At the far stick, Mavropanos crashes a header off the underside of the bar, down and in! No stopping that one. “I tell you what, I guarantee he meant that!” quips Ally McCoist. Perfect comic timing.
BOSH: Konstantinos Mavropanos (C) heads home their first goal. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 16.40 EDT
33 min: Have to say, when Silva dinked that ball across in real time, my first instinct was: a staggering work of genius. But then on TNT, both Ally McCoist and Joe Cole suggest he was almost certainly looking for Haaland. And then it’s reported that he told City sub Phil Foden that he meant it. Whatever: it looked good.
ShareGOAL! West Ham United 0-1 Manchester City (Silva 31)
Silva in a tight position on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. Sent scampering there by Marmoush. He stands one up to the far stick for Haaland … or does he deliberately look to lob Hermansen, because the ball oscillates from right to left and dips into the top-right corner! Outrageous luck, or outrageous skill? You decide!
Bernardo Silva of Manchester City scores the opening goal. Photograph: Javier García/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 16.35 EDT
30 min: A couple of sore ones for West Ham, as Khusanov stands on Bowen’s leg and then Semenyo catches Diouf. Neither challenge appeared deliberate, all accidental, but both will have hurt. Thankfully no serious damage is done.