West Ham defender shows Man City another use for Erling Haaland

Maybe the number of games has caught up with them, maybe it comes from starting two centre-backs who picked up injuries on Wednesday, maybe West Ham were just good at neutralising them or maybe you only see these kinds of things when a team loses. But Manchester City looked slow, and flat from the start at the London Stadium.

The three changes to the team were in attack and removed the two paciest attackers in Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden for an opponent that stacked the penalty area, making it difficult for anyone to generate speed. No wonder then that City saw 78 per cent possession in that first half but barely test the West Ham goalkeeper.

Pep Guardiola has said for a while now that his team lack the ability to attack quickly to punish teams, as in they lack the players. That is certainly the case without Sterling or Foden in the team.

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Contrast that with their biggest rivals, who have also added the dynamic Luis Diaz to terrorise opponents since January. This difference in pace is the greatest difference between City's attack and Liverpool's, with Jurgen Klopp's side better at taking advantage of teams before they have time to set as a defence.

That doesn't make them better - the Blues are still top of the table, of course - but does highlight how teams can stop them if they are not at their best. Even if the teams were much-changed for the Carabao Cup encounter, it is no coincidence that West Ham join Southampton, Liverpool and Palace in having success against this City side more than once in a season.

As much as Erling Haaland has been signed for the next campaign the make the difference in the biggest games, it is these fixtures