Man City 6 West Ham 0: Manuel Pellegrini hails ‘brilliant’ Citizens

Manuel Pellegrini hailed Manchester City’s “brilliant performance” after the Citizens thrashed West Ham United in the first leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final.

Spain international Alvaro Negredo scored twice in the opening 26 minutes to put City in charge, and Yaya Toure added a third goal five minutes before half-time.

Alvaro Negredo had a great match, he was the link between the strikers and midfield but Edin Dzeko was great too

Manuel Pellegrini

Negredo completed his hat-trick in the 52nd minute, as strike partner Edin Dzeko added a further two goals to book City’s place in the League Cup final – barring a miracle at Upton Park later this month.

And Pellegrini, who has been without Sergio Aguero for the past six weeks, heaped praise on his new striker partnership of Dzeko and Negredo.

“It was a brilliant performance. It doesn’t matter if we were two, three or four up we kept playing the same way, always looking for more goals,” Pellegrini told BBC Sport.

“Alvaro Negredo had a great match, he was the link between the strikers and midfield but Edin Dzeko was great too. They are not used to playing together but they are getting better all the time.”

Meanwhile, Bosnia-Herzegovina striker Dzeko believes that City are continuing to improve as they challenge on four fronts this term – and also lost count of the final score.

“We are getting better all the time,” Dzeko said. “It’s not easy to win 5-0 at home against a Premier League team but we did.

“Was it 6-0? Oh.”