City beats West Ham 3-1 to keep pace with United, Chelsea

It needed Sterling’s second goal, when he rounded the goalkeeper and scored from an acute angle, to settle City’s nerves but Guardiola will be concerned with how his team’s level dropped in the second half.

However the City boss refused to be drawn on Sergio Aguero’s potential ban for elbowing Winston Reid.

Guardiola said: “We created many, many chances”.

“Reid got a little injured so we took him off”, Bilic said.

For his third league game in charge of City, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager again picked Willy Caballero in goal rather than Joe Hart, and the Argentine was not troubled for nearly an hour until Antonio’s unexpected intervention.

Sterling’s opening goal was magnificently worked.

Sterling finished off a slick move in the seventh minute to put City 1-0 up before Fernandinho doubled their lead when he headed in a Kevin De Bruyne free kick 11 minutes later from seven yards out.

Bilic’s side, again weakened by injuries and unable to use new loan signing Simone Zaza from Juventus, employed three centre halves plus wing backs, but defended poorly against City’s fluent attacking.

“The reaction in the second half was better”.

“You can’t say City didn’t deserve to win”.

“They jumped more than us but we played a good game”. Our fans enjoyed it and we are happy.

West Ham midfielder Mark Noble suggested Reid’s speech had been affected by the blow.

The Belgium worldwide said: “I think the first half was really good”. It shows how good they are. Praise for the team for the second-half performance.

The Spanish global had all the time in the world to pick out his man, and his cut back was met by Sterling on the penalty area, and he easily sent the ball into the corner of the net.

In the other game Sunday, Middlesbrough maintained its unbeaten start to life back in the Premier League by drawing 0-0 at West Bromwich Albion in a game of few clear-cut chances.

Sterling has scored twice and picked up three assists in just four appearances under Guardiola – it took him Manuel Pellegrini’s last 22 matches in charge to contribute to five goals at the end of the 2015-16 campaign.

But at times City’s play and dominance of possession was so mesmerising they hardly seemed to need a keeper.

He set up the one shot on goal, by Cristhian Stuani. “I keep seeing that word”, Sterling told Sky Sports. I am so optimistic, I see many good things about the players but I didn’t expect to see so many good things in such a short time playing. It’s not unfair – obviously it was a hard first season getting to know the club, but Pep Guardiola has come in and given us a lot of courage.

With the transfer deadline on Wednesday, Guardiola said the Frenchman’s future was in his own hands.

We feel the players believe in what we do and that is more satisfying for the coach of course, but that without results is nothing. “Hopefully nothing happens. If it happens, we accept and adapt and we will try our best”.

Aguero had the chance to score a third for Man City in the 66th minute after breaking into the West Ham box, but the Argentine hit the side-netting as the away side stayed in the game approaching the final 20 minutes of action.