How do you stop Erling Haaland? And if you successfully do that (West Ham didn’t), how do you stop Rayan Cherki? Miraculously pass steps one and two and it’s just the small matter of Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders and Bernardo Silva in your way.
West Ham failed every question in what is one of the toughest exams any side in the Premier League will face all season long: a title-contending City, at home, when they have wind in their sails.
Haaland’s brace, both fortuitous in one aspect but ruthless finishes from the world’s best finisher in the other, either side of half-time drew a robot celebration for the first and a smile-shrug of the shoulders combination for the second. This is just what Haaland, now up to 19 league goals and counting this season, and City do.
Extrapolate out to club and country and Haaland is up to 38 before the Christmas crackers have even been pulled.
So, likely for just a few hours before Arsenal’s clash with Everton, City went top of the table. Not that Guardiola cares too much. You don’t win anything at Christmas.
That is what makes Guardiola such a fascinating watch away from the artistry fans are glued to on the pitch. He’s twitchy, irritable at seemingly minor mistakes, animatedly positive at seemingly insignificant passes or moves. At the very end of this 3-0 win he raced on to lecture Josko Gvardiol about his positioning.
West Ham, like many teams this season, failed to keep Erling Haaland at bay on Saturday
The Manchester City forward netted twice as his side triumphed 3-0 over the Hammers
The London club failed to handle in-form Rayan Cherki as well, as the title contenders ran riot
He’s box office and for the first time in a while, this group looks like a Guardiola title contender.
At 2-0 he was so furious at Ruben Dias he ended up on the pitch as he threw his arms around. It is why it is hard to look past City in this title race.
His handling of Rayan Cherki, who was head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch for the 67 minutes he was on, is a case in point.
Amid all of the oohs and the aahs that are part and parcel of watching Cherki play football, Guardiola refused to get swept up by it all. He will not waver in his tough love approach.
Cherki plays football in its purest form. This is what a Ronaldinho or Neymar at the peak of their powers would have looked like had they ever pitched up in the Premier League.
His processing power is far quicker than anyone he shares the pitch with and his vision is as good as anyone in the game right now. The way he manipulates the ball with such nonchalance in tight spaces is reminiscent of a certain David Silva. There were times here when all West Ham could do was puff out their cheeks and hope for the best.
There are tricks, too, like all good showman in starring roles serve up to their gleeful – and expectant – audience.
His best party trick was a lightning-quick shuffle of the feet to bamboozle West Ham on the edge of their own box, poke it two yards to Haaland, who followed suit to allow Tijjani Reijnders the chance to lash home. 2-0 and at that point game over.
Haaland was involved in all three goals and will leave the Etihad unlucky not to score a hat-trick
By the time the half-time whistle went, Cherki walked down the tunnel having created five chances – one of which was a goal 99 times out of 100 for Haaland, only for him to shockingly nod it well wide from seven yards out. Every other player on the pitch combined for just two chances.
But Guardiola took Cherki off in midweek in the Carabao Cup against Brentford as he ‘did not do the job he should have defensively’. Magic isn’t what impresses Guardiola about these players, simplicity is.
‘In his career, I have the feeling he has done whatever he wants,’ Guardiola said of Cherki this week.
‘I never saw Messi doing these kind of things,’ he added, when asked about Cherki’s jaw-dropping rabona assist against Sunderland last month.
‘The biggest quality of [Lionel] Messi is the simplicity. The simple things he does perfectly. The big talent that Rayan is, he has to learn a lot of these things. But he’s so young.
‘I want players to do the simple things well and, after that, if you have special talent, he can do whatever he wants. But if it does not work, it will be a problem; he will be in trouble.’
Cherki would come off again here, replaced by Savinho who was the creator of the third that was finished off by Haaland.
Tijjani Reijnders also found the net as Man City provisionally climbed to the top of the table
West Ham at least got Gianluigi Donnarumma out of his metaphorical deckchair for the second half, with Jarrod Bowen flashing one wide and Crysencio Summerville struck one that hit him plum in the face,
But this is two sides rapidly heading in different directions. West Ham failed this test in every single possible way. For City, the beauty is that a never-fully-satisfied Guardiola is likely to make questions even more complicated for those still yet to visit.
Arsenal are formidable but make no mistake that City remains the Premier League’s greatest showman.
