A jubilant Sam Allardyce said the Premier League champions could not cope with West Ham United’s firepower after his team continued an encouraging start to the season with a 2-1 home win over Manchester City.
Goals from Morgan Amalfitano and Diafra Sakho enabled West Ham to prevail in a thrilling contest despite David Silva pulling back a goal in the 77th minute. City twice hit the crossbar and were foiled several times by the goalkeeper Adrián, but West Ham also created opportunities to increase their tally and Allardyce was adamant his side merited their win.
“It was not a lucky victory, it was well-deserved,” Allardyce said. “We made some outstanding chances and we took Manchester City’s back four to task and in my opinion they didn’t hold up. And I think they didn’t hold up because of the quality of our play.”
Manuel Pellegrini had a different view, suggesting City let West Ham off the hook with inaccurate finishing rather than inadequate defending. “We always say when we concede a goal that we could do better but today we missed two or three clear chances,” the manager said. “I don’t think we deserved this defeat.”
City’s second reverse in the Premier League this season came after a disappointing draw against CSKA Moscow that jeopardised their prospects of emerging from their Champions League group, but Pellegrini insists the stuttering start to the season does not place him under more pressure than ever before. He pointed out that despite suffering hiccups, his team have one more point in the league than they did at the same stage last season, when they lay seventh in the table after nine matches but went on to claim the title.
“The pressure was exactly the same in my first game as it is today,” he said. “My pressure is the most important. We are second in the table and we continue to have a lot of chances in the Champions League so we are going for a lot of important things. We just had a very undeserved defeat today. I continue to trust in this group of players. We are in a good position. There are 87 more points to play for so we are just starting the season.”
There was nothing forced about Allardyce’s positivity, as he heralded the fresh optimism around West Ham following the club’s spectacular start to the campaign. “We are in a very good frame of mind and in a very good mood so it’s nice to come in to the training ground with everyone smiling and looking forward to training.”
