Raheem Sterling strikes twice to dismiss West Ham

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p><b>Manchester City 3 — West Ham 1<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Raheem Sterling struck twice as Pep Guardiola&&num;8217&semi;s winning start as Manchester City boss continued with a hard-fought 3-1 win over West Ham&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sterling&&num;8217&semi;s first after seven minutes and another from Fernandinho soon after appeared to put a dominant City on course for a huge victory at the Etihad Stadium&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the hosts were unable to maintain their scintillating early pace and Michail Antonio&&num;8217&semi;s 58th-minute reply set up a tense finish until Sterling rolled in his second in injury time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>City&&num;8217&semi;s victory sets up a mouth-watering derby against Manchester United next month&comma; although Sergio Aguero could face disciplinary trouble after an apparent elbow on Winston Reid went unpunished&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As expected&comma; Guardiola returned to Willy Caballero in goal&comma; with Joe Hart on the bench&comma; as Claudio Bravo was kept waiting for his debut&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But at times City&&num;8217&semi;s play and dominance of possession was so mesmerising they hardly seemed to need a keeper&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They looked in the mood from the outset with the training ground lessons from Guardiola having clearly sunk in further&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>David Silva and Sterling were particularly lively and as Aguero won possession and brushed past Reid to shoot wide after just two minutes&comma; it seemed the Hammers were in for a long afternoon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It came as no surprise when City took the lead&period; Silva carried the ball forward from deep and spread wide for Nolito&comma; whose first time ball across goal was tucked home clinically by<br &sol;>&NewLine;Sterling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Just over 10 minutes later City doubled their lead as Kevin De Bruyne whipped in one of many dangerous free-kicks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Belgian&&num;8217&semi;s curling&comma; dipping delivery arrived at the perfect height for Fernandinho to rise and power a header into the net&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>City could easily have had more before the break as their attacking players combined beautifully on a number of occasions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>De Bruyne thought he had made it 3-0 after carving through West Ham with a neat exchange of passes with Silva but his shot was deflected narrowly wide&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>West Ham hardly saw any of the ball with their only notable effort before the break coming when Gokhan Tore lobbed in a cross and Ashley Fletcher&comma; on his full debut&comma; headed wide&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Yet even then there were mitigating factors for City with John Stones off the field for treatment following a heavy bang to the knee in a collision with Arthur Masuaku&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>City had the ball in the net early in the second half following another vicious De Bruyne free-kick but Nolito&comma; who got the final touch&comma; was one of two players offside&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nolito then curled another effort into the side-netting as City threatened more but West Ham suddenly got themselves back into the game just before the hour&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Caballero&comma; hurt moments earlier after a late challenge from Fletcher&comma; was caught out of position as Masuaku crossed and Antonio headed in at the far post&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>City came again with De Bruyne slipping in Aguero on goal but the normally deadly Argentinian shot just the wrong side of the post&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Still&comma; the tempo of the first half was missing and Aguero may have been lucky to escape punishment after appearing to catch Reid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>City tried to sharpen up by sending on Samir Nasri&comma; whose future under Guardiola is unclear&comma; and the Frenchman almost struck after being played in by Aguero only for Adrian to block his shot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nasri fired another good chance over and Silva hit the post but Sterling made sure with a cool finish in the closing moments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e1f9075051e">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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