Man City leave Elaquim Mangala exposed! Sam Allardyce offers advice to Manuel Pellegrini
"WE HAVE to play a little bit better," Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany admitted after yet another below-par Manchester City away-day left them trailing in the wake of Chelsea following Saturday's 2-1 defeat at West Ham.
Eliaquim Mangala (left) was targeted by Sam Allardyce's West Ham throughout Saturday's game[GETTY]
However, publicly at least, manager Manuel Pellegrini was offering no solutions.
"I don't analyse the individual performance of players with the press," he said. "I do it with the players in private." Thank goodness, then, for Sam Allardyce.
Not only had he seen his perfectly executed plan add last year's champions to last year's runners-up Liverpool as victims this time round, but he was never going to need much persuasion to talk about it.
"I think they leave Elaquim Mangala exposed," he said simply. "He' has only just joined the Premier League. They don't protect him and he has only just got here, the more and more you can get down the side of him, with the space that Gael Clichy leaves.
"On the other side, Kompany is used to it when Zabaleta goes forward. He has been at this level for such a long time. This lad's not: he's finding his feet and, like I said, we made big strides down that side and we caused them lots of problems.
"Maybe there should have been a bit more protection for them from the other players. That wasn't there and we could expose that.
"We all know that Manchester City play a certain way, they come away from home expecting to win and go and attack you. We've seen a lot this season about those spaces they leave can be exploited by other teams. We exploited those gaps brilliantly."
Never more so than in the 21st minute when Alex Song slipped an exemplary ball between Clichy and Mangala that afforded Enner Valencia the time to pick out a cross that evaded Pable Zabaletta and gave Morgan Amalfitano the simplest of far-post tap-ins.
Manuel Pellegrini: No Russia hangover for Man City
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Even for the second, Managala was ball-watching and Clichy failed to jump and challenge Diafra Sakho as he rose to head his sixth goal in six successive Premier League starts - a run that equalled a 22-year Premier League record.
David Silva scored a quicksilver consolation just two minutes later but, with the woodwork very much on the side of the Hammers and Adrian athletic as always in goal, it was enough to continue their best start to a top-flight season since 1982.
West Ham stalwart Mark Noble said: "Our goal still at the minute is to finish in the top 10 but, if you keep on winning games like that, then people are going to expect more from you.
"I am pretty sure we will not get carried away, there are a lot of games left, we know that, but we are on 16 points and it is looking good at the minute.
"Do you know what, don't get me wrong, I have played in some good teams here when Dean Ashton was scoring, Craig Bellamy and Carlos Tevez when we stayed up. But this is definitely the best start I have ever had, the way we are playing and the results we are getting, is really good at the minute.
"You know it is going to end sometime, sooner or later, but I don't want it to because I am enjoying it so much."
WEST HAM (4-2-3-1): Adrian 8; Jenkinson 6, Collins 6, Reid 7, Cresswell 6; Noble 7, Song 8; Sakho 9 (Nolan 89), Downing 7, Amalfitano 7 (Kouyate 66, 6); Valencia 7 (Cole 78, 5). Booked: Amalfitano, Song.
Goals: Amalfitano 21, Sakho 75. NEXT UP: Sat, Stoke (a) PL.