West Ham 0-5 Manchester City: Raheem Sterling hits hat-trick amid VAR farce

How to improve on a treble? Raheem Sterling hit a brace as reigning champions Manchester City started the season with a 5-0 victory away to West Ham Sterling celebrates after completing his hat-trick as City opened their title defence with an emphatic statement of intent City star Sterling managed to guide the ball beyond West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski for the third goal You might have thought it was pretty much the perfect start to the season. Jesus runs to celebrate with Kyle Walker, who provided the assist for the Brazilian's goal against West Ham Raheem Sterling showed impressive composure to make it 2-0 to City in the 51st minute with a neat strike Sterling slotted the ball through the legs of West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski as City managed to double their lead MATCH FACTS Ratings by Jack Gaughan West Ham : Fabianski 6; Fredericks 5, Balbuena 5, Diop 5.5, Cresswell 4; Wilshere 5, Rice 6; Anderson 4.5, Lanzini 6, Antonio 6.5, Haller 6.5 Substitutes not used: Roberto, Ogbonna, Sanchez, Zabaleta Booked: Balbuena, Anderson Manchester City : Ederson 7; Walker 7, Stones 7, Laporte 7, Zinchenko 7; De Bruyne 8, Rodri 7, David Silva 7 ; Mahrez 9, Jesus 8, Sterling 9.5 Substitutes not used: Bravo, Otamendi, Bernardo Silva, Cancelo Goals: Jesus 25, Sterling 51, 75, 90, Aguero 86 Booked: Walker, Sterling Referee: Mike Dean 6 The impossible thing with City is that can play at half speed, as they did early on, and still pick you apart in a thirty second spell of slick, precise football. Substitute Sergio Aguero scored a penalty for City after VAR deemed that the spot-kick should be retaken Aguero celebrates with fellow substitute Phil Foden after scoring City's fourth goal in their 5-0 victory against West Ham City looked to have scored a third goal through Jesus but it was ruled out by VAR after Mike Dean said that Sterling was offside Referee Mike Dean rules out Aguero's penalty, forcing a re-take that the Argentine duly converted to boost City's lead Aguero made no mistake with his second attempt at the penalty, putting City into a four goal lead at the London Stadium City were fortunate perhaps in their first goal on 24 minutes – though the passage of lay from the goal kick that led up to it was precision personified – in that Kyle Walker's cross deflected off Issa Diop and onto Gabriel Jesus' knee and in. Jesus' strike was the first time in Premier League history that a goal had been ruled out due to a VAR decision Sterling celebrates after scoring his second goal of the game as City secured a 5-0 victory away to West Ham Sterling slots home at the near post to complete his hat-trick and seal City's emphatic victory with a fifth goal Summer signing Rodri made his Premier League debut for City following his switch from Atletico Madrid And for a while West Ham played as though that were the case.