Manchester City got their Premier League campaign underway in style after David Silva inspired them to a resounding 3-0 victory over West Brom at the Hawthorns.
Silva was instrumental throughout, and will claim the visitors’ opener when he deflected Yaya Toure’s effort past a stranded Boaz Myhill after nine minutes.
Toure emphatically doubled City’s lead halfway through the first half, before Rickie Lambert and Saido Berahino went close to halving the defecit for the Baggies.
City captain Vincent Kompany headed in a fine third to make sure of the points after the break, duly sending City top of the infant Premier League table on goal difference.
Baggies manager Tony Pulis adopted a bold formation from the outset considering the calibre of the opponents, with both Berahino and new signing Lambert starting up front.
But the visitors soon began to unpick those tactics, and they took the lead in bizarre circumstances inside ten minutes when Silva got the faintest touch to Toure’s weak effort before it trickled over the line.
If the first goal was scrappy, City’s second was delicious. Toure, who showed glimpses of the form that saw him fire 20 goals in the 2013/2014 season, exchanged passes with Wilfried Bonybefore caressing the ball into the top corner from 20 yards.
£49m Debutant Raheem Sterling could have had a third before the break but shot feebly at Myhill, before Berahino had an effort correctly disallowed for offside.
The hosts began the second half far more positively and went close twice through Lambert and Berahino again, but Kompany’s superb header from from Silva’s corner just before the hour mark quashed any thoughts of a comeback.
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