West Ham Performance Rated

Most of the papers seemed unimpressed by West Ham or City yesterday. The Guardian were the most bored as 'West Ham and Manchester City frustratingly wasted away 90 minutes of football.' The fact that both managers were 'pleased with the draw and the defending' the paper says 'speaks volumes'.

The Daily Mail say 'City created the best opportunities' and 'had strong shouts for a first-half penalty.' West Ham 'created chances of their own but generally lacked any cutting edge up front, where Dean Ashton was disappointing alongside Carlton Cole.'

Similarly The Independent were unimpressed with West Ham's strikers, 'though Cole won many of his aerial challenges and Ashton is astute at getting in front of his markers, they created little between them.'

The Daily Telegraph felt that 'Petrov was the main threat' and conceded that West Ham 'had their own penalty claim late on when Carlton Cole appeared to head against Vedran Corluka's arm.'

The Times disagreed with The Guardian's dour assessment of the game and said 'it was a flowing match, full of attacking energy, and there might have been three or four goals.' The reason there weren't any goals was because 'the goalkeepers were both excellent.' The Times were even impressed with the pairing of Cole and Ashton who they claim 'were threatening.'