Manchester City – 10 Years Ago – Beating West Ham
By David Crook
When looking back on performances from the past, there are always surprises that even the most ardent Manchester City fan may have forgotten.
Ten years ago – Manchester City played West Ham United on 28 September 2009 in a live Monday Night Football game. City ran out winners by 3:1 but the game was notable for a couple of reasons.
Although City had been transformed by investment from new owner Sheikh Mansour on 1 September 2008, it was still early days in the project the following season. This was when City were still paying top money to try and assemble a stellar squad capable of winning a trophy.
Ten years ago City had made the ultimate statement by signing Carlos Tevez and this was when the famous “Welcome to Manchester” billboards went up on Deansgate.
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Those billboards were all about ribbing our neighbours, Manchester United, from where we had snatched him.
It was Tevez that really sealed this victory, with two goals against his former club West Ham United. He side footed into the net from a whipped cross by Martin Petrov and scored his second from a header after a Craig Bellamy free kick. These goals sandwiched a great 25 yard Petrov free kick.
Quite how this game finished with City only scoring three times was a mystery as Tevez in particular could have easily had another two or three goals.
This was City’s 5th win in the opening 6 games of the season and moved the club into the top 5 of the Premier League, making this City’s best ever start to a League campaign since 1961.
However what I remember most from this game is that it proved to be the debut of Roque Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was one of those players who came to almost mythically represent the folly of the football project.
It took something like 7 attempts to prise him away from Blakburn at a vastly inflated price. And he did nothing for us, suffering a serious knee injury from which he never really ever recovered.
The other notable thing when reading back the match reports from the time is that there is none of the vicious bile with which our performances are these days greeted by the media. This was before we wom anything so we were not a threat to the elite and their fans in the media.
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Manchester City’s squad that day
Given
Bridge, Zabaleta, Lescott, Toure
Wright-Phillips, Petrov, Barry, De Jong
Tevez, Bellamy