London: Manchester City strengthened their grip on fourth place in the Premier League with a 2-0 win at home to West Ham on Sunday but at the cost of seeing David Silva carried off on a stretcher.
The influential Spanish playmaker was on the receiving end of what appeared to be an accidental elbow from West Ham’s Cheikhou Kouyate midway through the second half and needed lengthy treatment on the field before being taken off the field amid concerns he might miss the rest of the season.
Reigning champions City’s hopes of a successful title defence were all but over before last week’s 4-2 derby defeat by Manchester United.
But this win saw them move to within a point of United and, significantly, go seven clear of fifth-placed Liverpool - - having played a league game more than the Merseysiders.
For an injury-hit City side and their under-pressure manager, Manuel Pellegrini, this was a timely victory.
City were in complete command against the Hammers almost from the moment the match kicked-off and they went ahead in the 18th minute when West Ham defender James Collins sliced Jesus Navas’s cross over the head of goalkeeper Adrian, the ball bouncing off the underside of the crossbar for a spectacular own-goal.
But there was no denying the quality of City’s second, which came nine minutes before half-time, with winger Navas again a key figure in the build-up.
Yaya Toure won the ball from West Ham and England winger Stewart Downing to launch a rapid counter-attack.
Sergio Aguero took the ball forward and then exchanged passes with Navas, collecting a superbly-weighted return ball, before sliding a precise shot under Adrian.
Defeat meant mid-table West Ham had won just two of their last 16 league matches, with this reverse doing little to calm the speculation surrounding the future of manager Sam Allardyce at the London club.
Toure is being made a scapegoat for Manchester City’s poor season and underfire boss Manuel Pellegrini is a “weak manager”, according to the Ivorian midfielder’s agent Dimitri Seluk.
“Some people at City are trying to blame Yaya for what has happened this season,” Seluk told the Sunday Mirror.
“The problem is that City want Yaya to do everything. They want him to score goals, they want him to assist goals, and they want him to defend.
“It is also interesting that City could not win a match when Yaya was away at the African Nations. He cannot do it all on his own. It seems the answer for everything at City is to blame Yaya.”
