Sergio Aguero is mobbed by his team-mates after scoring City's fourth at the London Stadium
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola hailed his side’s attacking qualities after they produced an all-star showing against West Ham to motor into the fourth round of The Emirates FA Cup.
The tie was effectively done and dusted at the break after a penalty from Yaya Toure, an own goal by West Ham defender Havard Nordtveit and a third from David Silva put Manchester City firmly in the driving seat.
After the break, City were never forced to move into top gear and strolled into the next round with Sergio Aguero adding a fourth goal to move third on his club’s all-time scoring charts and John Stones scoring a late fifth.
Guardiola said: “The win was very pleasing but finally we have managed to keep the ball more than in other games recently and that was good.
“We played much better, we created many more chances and we conceded few efforts and that helped us a lot. Before the penalty, we also had three or four clear chances.
“It’s an important win for us, it’s not easy in the third round and hopefully it makes our players believe in us more that they are good enough to play in every game and understand that they are good.”
The scoring began just past the half-hour mark as West Ham’s Angelo Ogbonna was adjudged to have fouled Pablo Zabaleta inside the area and referee Michael Oliver had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Toure took responsibility for the spot-kick and made no mistake as he fired comprehensively past Adrian to give City, who have progressed past the third round in six of the last seven seasons, the lead.
But the hosts should have levelled on 35 minutes, when somehow Sofiane Feghouli missed an open goal after Caballero could only palm Michail Antonio’s fierce drive into his path.
And Nordtveit ended up putting the ball through his own net, under pressure from Raheem Sterling, on 40 minutes after a wonderful build-up and cross from Bacary Sagna.
It got worse for West Ham just two minutes later as Silva fired home from close range after being picked out by Sterling following another incisive City break.
The fourth arrived when Aguero turned home a powerful Toure drive from close range to rack up his 18th goal of the season and 154th in total for the club.
Stones then added a fifth goal for Manchester City on 84 minutes as he powerfully headed home from a corner, despite Mark Noble’s best effort to clear off the line.
West Ham United: 13 Adrian, 2 Winston Reid, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 4 Havard Nordtveit, 7 Sofiane Feghouli, 9 Andy Carroll, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 14 Pedro Obiang, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 30 Michail Antonio, 31 Edimilson Fernandes
Substitutes: 16 Mark Noble for Lanzini 58, 27 Dimitri Payet for Carroll 58, 24 Ashley Fletcher for Antonio 72
Substitutes not used: 1 Darren Randolph, 28 Jonathan Calleri, 35 Reece Oxford, 36 Domingos Quina
Head coach: Slaven Bilić
Manchester City: 13 Willy Caballero, 3 Bacary Sagna, 24 John Stones, 30 Nicolas Otamendi, 22 Gael Clichy, 42 Yaya Toure, 5 Pablo Zabaleta, 17 Kevin De Bruyne, 21 David Silva, 7 Raheem Sterling, 10 Sergio Aguero
Substitutes: 9 Nolito for Silva 58, 75 Alex Garcia for De Bruyne 68, 18 Fabian Delph for Toure
Substitues not used: 1 Claudio Bravo, 11 Aleksander Kolarov, 15 Jesus Navas, 72 Kelechi Iheanacho,
Head coach: Pep Guardiola
Goals: Toure 33 (pen), Nordtveit (o.g) 41, Silva 43, Aguero 50, Stones 84
Attendance: 56, 975
Referee: Michael Oliver
