Man City draw with West Ham in blow to title hopes | OneFootball

Former Arsenal defender Konstantinos Mavropanos gave his old side a helping hand by putting a huge dent in their title rivals Manchester City’s hopes of catching them. 

The Greek defender secured a 1-1 draw for relegation battling West Ham at the London Stadium, heading in with the Hammers’ only attempt of the entire game after Bernardo Silva had opened the scoring earlier in the first half. 

Much like City boss Pep Guardiola’s view of the London Stadium pitch from the stands, his side are now very much staring at league leaders Arsenal from a distance. The Gunners, who scored twice late on to beat Everton 2-0 ahead of City’s 8pm kick-off, now lead their rivals by nine points though having played a game more. 

Guardiola was forced to take a far less close-up view than he is used to, serving a touchline ban for an accumulation of yellow cards.  

Bernardo Silva gave the visitors the lead just after the half-hour mark, latching onto a pass from Omar Marmoush before delicately dinking the ball over the head of Mads Hermansen and into the back of the net. 

At first it looked like the Portuguese midfielder had pulled off an audacious attempt, but his celebrations seemed to suggest he had in fact not meant it and was instead trying to pick out his team-mates in the middle. 

But, remarkably, West Ham levelled less than five minutes later through their first, and what would turn out to be only, attempt of the game.

Mavropanos rose highest at the back post to head in off the bar after City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma misjudged the flight of the ball and missed it completely.